“The new expatriates arrive practically on the hour, every day of the week. They get off Cathay Pacific flights from New York, BA from London, Garuda from Jakarta, ANA from Tokyo, carrying briefcases, carrying Louis Vuitton handbags, carrying babies and bottles, carrying exhaustion and excitement and frustration.”
“The rusty padlock held, but pointlessly, because the hasp was entirely loose from the door frame; the door stood slightly ajar, and when they tugged at it opened wide enough to let them squeeze through.”
“I’m smarter now that my smartphone is gone. I can pay attention in a different way. I know what strangers are thinking. I know when a town is coming before it comes because the pollution changes a half mile out.”
"There in the ruined hotel in Goodbye, Idaho, on his third day all alone, during the midst of his evening inspections, 10-year-old Dewey Addison was tiptoeing around the fourth floor when he passed an open doorway and thought he saw something move."
