The Island Villa Quotes

“when she saw Emmanuel walking towards us. ‘What is it?’ I asked, reaching out to stop her from leaving. She looked at me, then blinked. ‘He’s not the kind of man you want to get involved with, is all I need to say – I just—’ She broke off, shook her head and hurried away, and I was left staring after her retreating back and wondering what she meant. As we drove home, there was none of the easy silence we’d shared on the way to the market. Though this time it was me who was being reticent. I couldn’t help thinking about what that woman had said to me. The warning she had given me. Of course, I wasn’t at all ready or willing to enter into any kind of relationship so soon after my husband’s death, but it got me worried nonetheless. Who was this man that I had welcomed into my home? Shared my meals with? Had I been wrong to put my trust in him? Was I so in need of a friend that I had looked for one in the wrong place? Was Emmanuel, with his quiet, sombre ways and his irreverent humour, someone I needed to worry about? Because in a way that’s what I had been hoping – that we’d be friends. That’s what today had felt like. Besides, he was the first person I’d met here who seemed to really understand the kind of pain I was in. He turned to me as we were driving. ‘Is everything okay, Charlotte?’ It was always a surprise when he said my name, and I startled. Shook my head. The women’s warning racing through my head. He’s not the kind of man you want to get involved with. What had she meant by that? Had she meant that he was some kind of adulterer? Or was it something else? There had been something in the woman’s eyes that had seemed to imply that the warning ran deeper than that.”
― Lily Graham, The Island Villa

“The other thing no one tells you about is what happens after the funeral. When the casseroles stop coming and the phone stops ringing. That’s when it hits you. In the silence. When you wish everything would just stop, but it doesn’t. The sun keeps rising. The tides keep turning. The birds keep singing. And the mail just keeps on coming.”
― Lily Graham, The Island Villa

“It’s funny – you can have a difficult relationship with your mother but still want to see her, still need to, in fact. Love was hardly if ever straightforward, and it was love, at the heart of it.”
― Lily Graham, The Island Villa

“At ninety-five she knew a lot about death, having outlived most of her own family. ‘But you keep them here,’ she’d said, pressing a fist into her chest as if it would enter her very heart. ‘They never go far from there. Sometimes, little Ben will come into the kitchen, hearing me speaking, and ask me who am I talking to, and it’s one of them. I’m speaking with my family. They never really leave you.’ I couldn’t help but hope that was true.”
― Lily Graham, The Island Villa

“Ai carai, after all these years. You can’t kill hope, eh?”
― Lily Graham, The Island Villa

“My mother had told me when my father had passed away that death was something you managed, not something you ever truly got over, and that some days were easier than others. I was grateful that today was one of those rare easier ones. I’d”
― Lily Graham, The Island Villa

“Hannah was my oldest, no-bullshit-between-us friend. You know the kind? She was the one who could tell me just about anything, the one who saw things in me that I didn’t even know about myself. The one who saw through everything I said. She was tough. Straight-talking. A powerhouse. Kind to those she cared about. To the rest of the world, she was pretty terrifying.”
― Lily Graham, The Island Villa

“the little girl who lives for ever inside my heart, alongside this heartbreakingly grown-up version.”
― Lily Graham, The Island Villa

“Each word fell from her mouth like it hurt, like it cost her money.”
― Lily Graham, The Island Villa

“he said, taking”
― Lily Graham, The Island Villa