## Metadata - Author: [[Scott Hawkins]] - Full Title: The Library at Mount Char - Category: #books ## Highlights - When Steve stepped over the threshold the dry husk of his old life fell away and was abandoned. He moved through the empty house with the savage glee of a marauding Hun. He’d brought a black pillowcase along with him to carry the loot. It fluttered from his hand as he moved, the flag of his new nation. ([Location 3247](https://readwise.io/to_kindle?action=open&asin=B00NRQRWAA&location=3247)) - What lay inside glittered like a dragon’s hoard: silver chain, diamond earrings, golden rings. As he stole these things his hands trembled the way a newly frocked priest’s might, pouring the chalice of his first communion. ([Location 3251](https://readwise.io/to_kindle?action=open&asin=B00NRQRWAA&location=3251)) - She was crying. Steve didn’t stop her, didn’t try to say anything. There was nothing to say. As the days and weeks and seasons wore on he found himself repeating this nothing, not wanting to. Gradually he came to understand that this particular nothing was all that he could really say now. He chanted it to himself in cell blocks and dingy apartments, recited it like a litany, ripped himself to rags against the sharp and ugly poetry of it. It echoed down the grimy hallways and squandered moments of his life, the answer to every question, the lyric of all songs. ([Location 3343](https://readwise.io/to_kindle?action=open&asin=B00NRQRWAA&location=3343))