Nordic Crime Library – serie

He was not miserable when he arrived, not as miserable as I wished. I adore wretched people. There is something fiercely interesting in deep despair, in the wringing of hands at the irreparable, in howling upon the brink of suicide. Then one truly learns human nature; one may blend one’s personality with life’s delicious fever.

When the hymn swells heavily through the room, it is as if I am sleeping and only dreaming all that has happened since it happened; the war, the disgrace. But still, through it all I see the compassionate eyes of the Madonna and the gleam in her golden hair, and sometimes I think that I have seen a little of that compassion in a human being.