And The Mountains Echoed - Khaled Husseini

Separation is sometimes inevitable. We could love someone so much but the universe might have a different plan for us and in the blink of an eye, our loved ones could be gone.

Quotes:

1) "It's a funny thing... but people mostly have it backward. They think they live by what they want. But really, what guides them is what they're afraid of. What they don't want."

2) "I learned that the world didn't see the inside of you, that it didn't care a whit about the hopes and dreams, and sorrows, that lay masked by skin and bone. It was as simple, as absurd, and as cruel as that." 

3) "It was the kind of love that, sooner or later, cornered you into a choice: either you tore free or you stayed and withstood its rigor even as it squeezed you into something smaller than yourself.

4) "A story is like a moving train: no matter where you hop onboard, you are bound to reach your destination sooner or later."

5) "The rope that pulls you from the flood can become a noose around your neck." 

6) "But it is important to know this, to know your roots. To know where you started as a person. If not, your own life seems unreal to you. Like a puzzle. Vous comprenez? Like you have missed the beginning of a story and now you are in the middle of it, trying to understand."

7) "He said that if culture is a house, then language was the key to the front door; to all the rooms inside. Without it, he said, you ended up wayward, without a proper home or a legitimate identity."

8) "I've read that if an avalanche buries you and you're lying there underneath all that snow, you can't tell which way is up or down. You want to dig yourself out but pick the wrong way, and you dig yourself to your own demise." 

9) "She was the trembler of knees, the spiller of teacups."

Vocabs

1) Benevolence : any kind act, but it can also describe the desire to do nice things. When you're feeling selfish, you probably won't show benevolence, but if benevolence comes through in spite of your crankiness, then you know you're really a good person.

2) pomegranate : buah delima (an orange-sized fruit with a tough reddish outer skin and sweet red gelatinous flesh containing many seeds)

3) labyrinth : a complicated series of paths, which it is difficult to find your way through

4) opaque : Not able to be seen through; not transparent

5) inscrutable : Impossible to understand or interpret

6) boulevard : A wide street in a town or city, typically one lined with trees

7) gnomon : The projecting piece on a sundial that shows the time by the position of its shadow.

8) aplomb : Self-confidence or assurance, especially when in a demanding situation.

9) askance/suspiciously (adverb) : With an attitude or look of suspicion or disapproval. (looked askance/looked suspiciously)

10) chafe/chafing : (With reference to a part of the body) make or become sore by rubbing against something. (rubbed some ointment to prevent chafing)