The Covenant of Water
A beautiful saga that covers a vast ground both spatially and temporarily. I read this book for a very long time and I get transported to a new world every time. The world building is done beautifully with so many characters and vivid descriptions. I felt the character and story building was not as elaborate in the latter parts as compared to the earlier parts in the book. Still it's bittersweet how everything comes together. Wonderful book overall!
Some of my favorite quotes from the book:
Chapter 7
To everything there is a season, and a time to every purpose under heaven.
Chapter 11
That was hardly reason to leave; even misery, when familiar, has its own comfort.
Chapter 13
describe the small-framed, handsome Tamils with their sharp Roman features, bright glittering eyes, and ready smiles.
Chapter 16
“The mistake, Digby, of choosing to see more in your future mate than the evidence has already suggested.”
Chapter 24
In the immensity of the cosmos, Rune feels he himself is nothing, an illusion. The difference between him and the leper is no difference at all, they are just manifestations of the universal consciousness.
Chapter 27
What is it with men needing to go up or down, turn bird or fish? Why not just stay on the ground? He looks at her so intensely it makes her shudder. He believes I have all the answers. That I can protect him from the disappointments of this life. “Up is good,” she says.
Chapter 28
“It’s fiction! Fiction is the great lie that tells the truth about how the world lives!”
Chapter 29
To see the miraculous in the ordinary is a more precious gift than prophecy.
Chapter 33
There’s compassion in them, but no pity.
Chapter 36
‘Whatsoever thy hand findeth to do, do it with thy might; for there is no work, nor device, nor knowledge, nor wisdom, in the grave, whither thou goest.’
Chapter 41
Janakiram has the answer. “Success is not money! Success is you are fully loving what you are doing. That only is success!”
Chapter 42
“One writes to know what one is thinking.”
Chapter 49
In a life, it is the in-betweens that are fatal;
Chapter 51
Life comes from God and life is precious precisely because it is brief. God’s gift is time.
Chapter 53
I’m a collector of wart cures, of which there are legion. Yes, yes, he said, most agreeably, and moreover, he added, the common ingredient to all the cures is belief. When a cure works it’s because the patient believes. When the cures are elaborate it’s easier to believe. That’s human nature. Fair enough, I said, because for once I agreed with him.
Chapter 62
What is worry but fear of what the future holds? Baby Mol lives completely in the present and is spared all worry.
Chapter 69
Sometimes we must imagine what is there to find it. That, by the way, I learned from you!”
Chapter 81
When one lived alone, the loudest laughter went unwitnessed and therefore was no better than silence.