WAR

I wasn't sure any longer what country I was in. I understand that it didn't matter what I called it, because whatever I called it, it was a country at war.

War is a country; that's what I learned, and it always looks the same. The citizens share a culture, which is the culture of trying to save their necks. The soldiers have another culture, the culture of creating havoc. Suspicion is the currency; the economics of despair. I hadn't grown up in this country; I wasn't used to it.

--- From Trespass
Valerie Martin
©2007 Nan A. Talese/
Doubleday