By the end of the war there was nothing about men and women that surprised him. Nothing about anything really. The whole edifice of civilization turn… - Kate Atkinson

The whole edifice of civilization turned out to be constructed from an unstable mix of quicksand and imagination.

The aircraft found the ground before Teddy did and he watched as it exploded in a glittery starburst of light. He would live, he realized. There would be an afterward after all. He gave thanks to whichever god had stepped in to save him.

(“An eye for an eye,” Mac said at the squadron reunion. Until everyone was blind, Teddy wondered?)

What did science ever do for the world, apart from make better ways of killing people?” Sylvie said.