The Mystery of Peacetime

"The war has ruined us for everything. We were 18 and had begun to love life in the world, and we were sent to shoot it to pieces," one young soldier says of his time in the trenches. "We are cut off now from striving, from progress. Now we only believe in the war," he adds. In my opinion, this is one of the most heartbreaking quotes of the book, because it rings so true to the present moment."