How we cite our quotes: Citations follow this format: (Chapter.Paragraph)
Quote #7
It was my grandfather who had the idea that we should write this story.
"That way you'll be able to take your roots with you if you ever have to leave, my dear," he said. (Epilogue.41)
Alba's project to create a testimony, as suggested to her by her grandmother's ghost, takes on a new, personal dimension here. When her grandfather suggests that her writing will help take her "roots" with her if she goes into exile, he implies that this saga might also be a way for her to understand her ancestry.
Quote #8
I began to write with the help of my grandfather, whose memory remained intact down to the last second of his ninety years. In his own hand he wrote a number of pages, and when he felt that he had written everything he had to say, he lay down on Clara's bed. (Epilogue.44)
Ah ha! Everything clicks into place when we read this sentence. Now we understand why so many of the passages in the novel were written from Esteban Trueba's perspective – he and Alba share the task of composing the story.
Quote #9
At times I feel as if I had lived all this before and that I have already written these very words, but I know it was not I: it was another woman, who kept her notebooks so that one day I could use them. (Epilogue.45)
The similarity between Clara and Alba, the two record-keepers of the family, is emphasized here – the emotional connection that Alba feels to her grandmother in reading her notebooks is so strong she sometimes feels they are the same person.