This story takes a while to build and once it does it is powerful. It's heartbreaking and beautiful -- each character is portrayed with the utmost love and tenderness, with their full humanity: going through terror, shame, grief, and also, selfless love, joy, forgiveness. I teared up many times, following these characters as life inflicts senseless suffering but also blesses them with happiness and love. There are so many beautiful passages and phrases that I will be thinking about. I finished this with an ache in my heart for the characters who love and lose, again and again.