Welcome back to Thursday Quotables! This weekly feature is the place to highlight a great quote, line, or passage discovered during your reading each week. Whether it’s something funny, startling, gut-wrenching, or just really beautifully written, Thursday Quotables is where my favorite lines of the week will be, and you’re invited to join in!
NEW! Thursday Quotables is now using a Linky tool! Be sure to add your link if you have a Thursday Quotables post to share.
The Day of Atonement by David Liss
(published 2014 )
This historical novel, set in Portugal during the Inquisition, is the story of one man’s quest for vengeance, no matter the cost:
How could I make peace with the dead? How could I atone for leaving my parents behind to be tortured and die in their prison cells? It had been a strange jumble of ideas. I was not even sure they made sense to me, but I had begun to sense that I needed to leave London and come to Lisbon. I needed to restore order to my broken life, and that could only happen in the city that had broken me. And now here I was. I had left my friend and mentor; I had abandoned everyone and everything in London. I was alone and vulnerable and in danger.
I was glad I had come.
This book is dark and ominous, page after page, but it’s also a compelling read:
I am not a kind person. That much, I believe, I have established in the previous account of enraged rival-pummeling. If I am a monster, however, then I am monster made, not born.
Indeed, I was made by men such as the priest who stood before me.
What lines made you laugh, cry, or gasp this week? Do tell!
If you’d like to participate in Thursday Quotables, it’s really simple:
- Write a Thursday Quotables post on your blog. Try to pick something from whatever you’re reading now. And please be sure to include a link back to Bookshelf Fantasies in your post (http://www.bookshelffantasies.com), if you’d be so kind!
- Click on the linky button (look for the cute froggie face) below to add your link.
- After you link up, I’d love it if you’d leave a comment about my quote for this week.
- Be sure to visit other linked blogs to view their Thursday Quotables, and have fun!
Bookshelf Fantasies 
This sounds so intriguing! I’m adding it to my TBR list 🙂
Aeriko @ http://thereadingarmchair.blogspot.com
I just finished it today! Well worth a read. 🙂
Uhm… I don’t know. A bit egocentric?
I’m not sure I’d like it.
I was hesitant at first, but ended up really caught up in the story. The main character isn’t particularly likeable, especially early on, but as you get to know him, he becomes more than what he first appears.
Sounds like an interesting book! I wonder why he’s so bent on explaining why he’s turned out the way he has. I’d be more worried about why
Very good observation! There’s a lot to his story, and the way he describes himself at the outset doesn’t really match up with what we end up learning about him through his actions. It’s interesting!
I love that- a monster made. It reminds me a little of Patrick Ness’s Monsters of Men. Sorry I can’t participate this week- I have too much on my plate with BEA and trying to finish my current read, but I’ll be back next week hopefully with some good quotes!
Ooh, are you at BEA? How exciting! Is Monsters of Men part of the Chaos Walking trilogy? I still need to start that. Looking forward to your next TQ post, whenever you’re ready! 🙂
Yes! It’s the last book, and in my opinion, the best! I swear that trilogy gets better with every book!
That’s so great to know! I have the first book on my Kindle — maybe I’ll finally dive in this summer!
I’ll look out for the review! 😉