Quotessence
Home / Books / Theft

Theft

Book by Abdulrazak Gurnah · 7 quotes · Betrayal, Love, Trauma

Filter quotes by topic

AllBetrayalLoveTraumaDesireFemale SubjugationForced MarriageHelplessnessLack Of AgencyLongingMale DominationMarital RapeMelancholyPatriarchySadnessToxic FamilyViolent Patriarchy

Theft Quotes

“It was later, when she was in her old bed in the dark, that the shock of it sank in. He was gone, and she was on her own with the child. She would never find happiness again. There was a pain sitting like a lump in her chest, a proper presence, and an anxious charge like a current through her limbs. Her ears hummed as she lay trembling in the dark, and for the first time in that long day her tears flowed. It felt as if love had fled from her forever.”

LoveTraumaBetrayal
Book:Theft
Create image

“When he was alone on the mat in the storeroom that night, closed in and in the dark, he felt a panic cutting through his misery. He sat up in alarm and heaved for air. He was too old for sobbing in the dark, but he could not stop. After what seemed a long time, the nausea eased, and he stretched out on the floor mat and tried to sleep. He remembered his father sitting silent and sullen on the bus, then striding in front of him past the blue mosque. He remembered his look of rage, his last words to him.”

TraumaBetrayalToxic Family
Book:Theft
Create image

“She learned to make it easier for herself, to evade pain by preparing her body to receive him. She learned to acquire some control so she was not always at his mercy, to delay and postpone, and to feign enjoyment. She said no when she could, and fought back when he rebuked her, returning vicious abuse to his hectoring threats. It was a nightmare she could not tell anyone about.”

Marital RapeMale DominationForced MarriageViolent Patriarchy
Book:Theft
Create image

“he reserved his cruelty for her and took pleasure in it, and she feared that one day his viciousness would become violent. She did not know whether it was best to cower and tremble in front of him as a sign of her capitulation, which she knew he desired, or to be obstinate and abusive in return. She was learning to live with his contempt and her own self- disgust, but she was frantic for her child’s safety. She wondered, at times, if this was what life was like for most women, if they lived this way, in terror of their men. Why did they not speak? She did not know who she could speak to.”

PatriarchyFemale SubjugationLack Of Agency
Book:Theft
Create image