"The mayor's wife was just one of a worldwide brigade. You have seen her before, I'm certain. In your stories, your poems, the screens you like to watch. They're everywhere, so why not here? Why not on a shapely hill in a small German town? It's as good a place to suffer as any. The point it, Ilsa Hermann had decided to make suffering her triumph. When it refused to let go of her, she succumbed to it. She embraced it. She could have shot herself, scratched herself or indulged in other forms of self-mutilation, but she chose what she probably felt was the weakest option -to at least endure the discomfort of the weather. For all Liesel knew, she prayed for summer days that were cold and wet. For the most part, she lived in the right place."
Markus Zusak, The Book Thief
