The Drowning Guard Quotes

“The pressure of politics can change the course of history, and even the word of God.”
― Linda Lafferty, The Drowning Guard

“It is the face of rebellion and determination. It does not show age, terror, or ennui. It is frozen in time, in a moment when you took a stand against a man who abused you. It is a mark of rebellion against man’s dominion, even an Ottoman Sultan. What face could be more beautiful, Kucuk?”
― Linda Lafferty, The Drowning Guard: A Novel of the Ottoman Empire

“The steps of the unseen visitor faltered and paused and soon a curse rang through the darkness. “May the mother’s milk fall untasted from the lips of the eldest son of the swine who carved this path!”
― Linda Lafferty, The Drowning Guard

“It was this moment when I realized a man’s word could poison woman against innocent woman if she surrendered to its violence, and indeed a woman could be the uglier beast.”
― Linda Lafferty, The Drowning Guard

“The constitution? Your words mock me and all women! I watched an old slave woman save my brother in an oven when they came to murder him. There is my constitution! When they learned of her cunning, I watched three of the animals rape her, to pay for her loyalty to the Sultan’s family. A servant woman who saved a male Ottoman! No assistance from men, no protection!”
― Linda Lafferty, The Drowning Guard

“What good is it to be a mere woman?” cried Esma, throwing her head back on the embroidered silk cushion. “To be married and remain behind a harem wall? It is to be held prisoner from womb to grave and never be truly born. And if it were not for my husband’s death, I should live the same fate.”
― Linda Lafferty, The Drowning Guard