....trauma made a kite of the mind and there was no telling what kind of wind might take hold of it. …. Olga felt the least capable of being alive when it was overcast. If she had to head up the stairs under a mass of clouds, she would find herself longing most acutely for a heart attack, or an aneurysm — anything to get it over with already.
One can't escape hearing of the wonders of speaking truth to power but almost noone knows what those wonders are because, of course, power is vicious and to speak truth to it requires either enormous bravery or immense naivety. Those who do not speak -- victims, accomplices, and sometimes both simultaneously -- are often simply trying to survive themselves and to protect those who are innocent, as this sparse novel about truth & silence, crime & complicity highlights.