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The Silencer QUOTES

The Silencer QUOTES

1 " It was an oblong, two-storey building with crumbling, dirty-red roof tiles and mauve plasterwork on the outside walls that had fallen off in chunks. Across it the faded slogan ‘Long Live the Albanian Communist Party’ was flaking off. It now had a wooden plaque on the door reading ‘Shënomadh Church’: an epitaph for the ideology that had claimed Albania as ‘the world’s first atheist state’, thought Jude. "

― Paul Alkazraji , The Silencer

2 " The window glass was cold as Jude touched his nose to its surface. He looked north over the centre of Tirana and drank in the thrill of the panorama. From a restaurant in the Sky Tower he could see down over the lush, green square of land criss-crossed with paths that was Rinia Park. He had arranged to meet Edona there at 3pm. To his left the apartment blocks clustered densely away to the horizon in colours of mustard, olive and denim blue. Ahead he could make out the rouge and yellow government ministry buildings on the edge of Skanderbeu Square, and the white needle of the Et’hem Bey Mosque. His eyes turned to the east past the black glass panelled Twin Towers and concrete Pyramid to the traffic flowing up the Gjergj Fishta Boulevard, where the harsh mid-day sunlight was glinting off car roofs and windscreens. Beyond that, through a haze of heat and light smog, Mount Dajti rose up to the blue, utterly cloudless sky. (From 'The Silencer'). "

― Paul Alkazraji , The Silencer

3 " He sat down with a dour face. “Ah, Shqipëria!” he said dropping his head. “Albania will never become Albania with Albanians in it!” He glanced at Jude. “Don’t ask. "

― Paul Alkazraji , The Silencer

4 " We can’t all be Byronic adventurers like you Jude. Have you been wrestling with any brigands in the mountains there?”
“No, but you’ve got to watch the drivers! Funny you should mention the poetic lord. He used to take his holidays down here, you know?”
“What… picking up last-minute bargains with ‘EasyFrigate’? "

― Paul Alkazraji , The Silencer

5 " You’re trying to help them… that’s a good thing. But you can’t always count on seeing their gratitude,” he said wanting to comfort her before he added a grain of salt. “You know what Tolstoy said… if you are unhappy with your life, you can change it in two ways… either improve the conditions you live in or improve your inner spiritual state. The first isn’t always possible but the second is… In the end, Alex, people need to go directly to the source of Grace for themselves. "

― Paul Alkazraji , The Silencer