“To uphold their ideology. The past is a mirror of us. It tells us who we’ve been and what we have become. Some people don’t like what they see in their reflection, so they change it by erasing memories from the face of the earth. By erasing people from existence.”

In this quote, Azrael explains to Lisavet why Nazi timekeepers burn memories within the time space. His words introduce the theme of How Power Shapes the Historical Record, as he explains how erasing parts of history allows the Nazis and others like them to control the narrative. His words convey the importance of who wields power, as they get to choose what part of history is preserved or forgotten. The metaphor of the mirror elaborates on the ripple effects of this, suggesting that those choices shape how people in the present understand themselves.

“‘You’re stuck with me, kiddo,’ [Ernest] said to her on those nights, stroking her hair and holding her close. ‘I’m never going to abandon you.’ But now here she was. Alone. He had abandoned her anyway.”

When Amelia is first introduced, she is beside her uncle’s grave and grieving his death. Her feelings of abandonment introduced the primary external conflict she faces in the text, which is related to the theme of The Value of Human Connection. Amelia struggles with the loss of both her uncle and her mother, causing her to distrust human connection and reflect on what she had with bitterness.

“Above all, Moira wanted to be someone whose competence people didn’t question. She was entirely self-sufficient. Her own money, her own apartment. A career with the State Department rivaling that of many men.”

The introduction of Moira emphasizes her strength and desire to project that strength to others. She is portrayed as someone who values her career and the autonomy associated with it, seeking success through her own hard work. These values permeate Moira’s character, as she is cold and distant from Amelia, a façade that she has designed to hide the trauma that she has been through at Jack’s hands.

“The version of the past we remember is often very different from what actually occurred. Events, histories, entire communities…it’s all been written and unwritten dozens of times over. Nobody knows how much has been lost. Nobody knows how much of what remains is the truth.”

In this quote, Azrael explains to Lisavet the impact of the timekeepers’ destruction of memories, linking their actions to a broader commentary on the politics of historical remembrance: Memory is fallible not only in its own right but also because of forces that seek to hide, destroy, or redefine the truth. This moment serves as a source of motivation for Lisavet’s character, as it causes her to begin to hunt down the timekeepers and save the memories they try to destroy, valuing the truth rather than what is “written” by those in power.

“It wasn’t death she feared most, but rather the thought of dying without ever having known what it was to be in love.”

After Azrael shows Lisavet memories of people in love, she awakens to the possibility of a new kind of human connection. For much of her life, she has lived in isolation, viewing memories as a witness and creating no memories of her own. However, her meeting with Ernest, this conversation with Azrael, and her subsequent realization that she is in love with Ernest cause her to change, rediscovering the centrality of human relationships.

“Either you take that book from her and figure out what she’s up to or you drag her out of there kicking and screaming so I can question her in person. That’s always been my preference anyway.”

Jack’s words to Ernest regarding Lisavet convey his detachment and ruthlessness. He fails to listen to Ernest or understand what Lisavet is doing, refusing to recognize that she is a child and is likely not a spy. As a representation of the cold, calculating bureaucracy he works for, Jack is characterized as someone who entirely lacks empathy in both timelines.

“He couldn’t get the girl’s face out of his head. She was haunting him like a ghost. Like a memory. He pictured her as he’d seen her most often; from a distance, hunched over on the ground, tending to burned pages with gentle hands, a loving glow radiating in her eyes.”

These words, describing how Ernest feels about Lisavet, convey how he has fallen in love with her and becomes consumed by her. This gives insight into Ernest’s character, as he begins to resist Jack because of how he feels about Lisavet—something that also shows how human connection facilitates resistance to tyranny. For the first time in Ernest’s life, his actions will impact a person he cares for instead of an abstraction (the unknown “memories” that he has been altering). Meanwhile, the simile comparing Lisavet herself to a “memory” foreshadows the close connection to the time space that she develops as a result of spending so much time there and that her daughter, Amelia, shares.

“For the first time since he’d enlisted as a soldier at the age of sixteen, Ernest began to question the legitimacy of the machine in which he was a vital cog. He began to consider what might happen if he chose to break rank.”

This quote uses a metaphor, comparing war to a “machine” and Ernest to a “cog” that helps it function, to convey both The Destructive Nature of War and the character development that Ernest is undergoing. Ernest has been used as a weapon, acting on behalf of the CIA and carrying out its orders with little thought, as he has been trained to do. However, his feelings for Lisavet cause him to both acknowledge and question this for the first time.

“Like that poem by Robert Frost, ‘Acquainted with the Night.’ Like walking in the middle of a beautiful city but still being completely alone.”

This allusion to Frost’s poem lends insight into Lisavet’s character—and Ernest’s understanding of that character. In the poem, the speaker walks alone through a city, feeling disconnected from humanity despite everything that is going on around them. In this way, the speaker reflects Lisavet, who is at the center of humanity while she explores memory yet is completely detached from it because she lacks personal human connection, leading to her despair and loneliness.

 “He thought of Ezekiel Levy and how little remained of his memory. His whole identity taken and destroyed. If Lisavet didn’t want to know all that had happened, who was he to tell her? Who was he to ruin what few precious memories she had of her life before the time space?”

Ernest’s thoughts emphasize the goodness of his character and his understanding that it is not his place to destroy or manipulate memory—an understanding many characters lack. While he here conceals aspects of history, he does so in a way that respects Lisavet’s autonomy: She doesn’t want to know the truth, so he does not force her to confront it. This conveys both his love for Lisavet and his growing understanding of the harm that he is doing working for the TRP, which has no such qualms (indeed, Jack will later corner Lisavet into recognizing precisely the historical events that Ernest here allows her to ignore). At the same time, Lisavet’s reluctance to investigate the events that occurred after she entered the time space is part of her broader, destructive pattern of denial, developing the theme of The Importance of Accepting Grief and Loss.

“The only person who had ever attempted to comfort her like this was Uncle Ernest and it has been years since he had needed to do so. Before him, she supposed the last person had been her mother. Her body yearned for it even as her mind resisted, and soon she found herself leaning into Moira’s embrace.”

In this moment, Moira comforts Amelia after she returns from the time space, having there confronted Anton. To this point, Amelia has been defined by her feelings of loss and abandonment. However, for the first time, she allows herself to trust Moira and be cared for by her, emphasizing her character growth and the theme of the importance of human connection.

“No, Jack. She’s a child. I’m not going to let you lock her up the way you did to me.”

This quote provides insight into Jack and Moira’s history, as she argues with him when he threatens either to send Amelia into the time space or isolate her if she refuses to comply. These words foreshadow the revelation of Moira’s past and her true identity, hinting at the fact that Jack once “lock[ed] her up” and controlled her as Lisavet.

“‘It doesn’t matter,’ Lisavet said, pressing the baby closer. ‘It was for her.’ Azrael stared down at the pile of dust that had once been memories and said nothing.”

Lisavet’s words convey the moral fracture that has occurred within her character. Until now, she insisted that history deserves to be preserved, arguing that the timekeepers who try to change it do not have the right to do so. Here, however, she chooses to act as the timekeepers do, saving her baby’s life by destroying part of history. Lisavet’s willingness to cause harm to protect those she loves complicates the emphasis laid on human connection as a redemptive force, but the novel will ultimately suggest that the distinction lies in the fearful, self-centered nature of Lisavet’s love, which refuses to accept the possibility of loss.

“We fill our homes with furniture and our minds with facts, but poetry is how we fill our souls. It’s the poor man’s medicine…the deepest expression of mankind. If you can read poetry, then you have already felt the shadows of humanity’s most potent emotions.”

Moira’s words to Amelia emphasize the importance of poetry as a motif. As the novel centers around the manipulation and destruction of memory for political ends, poetry serves as a reminder of the human emotion that gives memory its ultimate value. Both Moira and Amelia love poetry because it offers a window into humanity in all its fullness, resisting attempts at erasure.

“When she was alone, Lisavet sat perfectly still on the bed, staring at the wall, or, occasionally, out the window. Beyond the bars there was very little to look at. A tree missing its leaves that indicated it was winter. A brick wall across the way. A tiny, almost imperceptible square of sky that she could see only when she craned her head as far as it would go.”

Lisavet’s hospital bed is a metaphorical representation of her detachment from her former life. After Jack forcibly removes her from the time space, she experiences both a physical and emotional rupture. The bars on the window prevent her from leaving, while the walls prevent her from seeing the outside; the imagery used to describe what she can see—a “brick wall” and a wintry scene—heightens the cold and sterile atmosphere. This Lisavet is vastly different from the one in the time space, who was free to explore humanity across time and space.

“When Lisavet looked up at him again, he was looking at her with the glint of a man striking gold. As if she were something very valuable and he, the owner of it.”

This description of Jack emphasizes the cold, manipulative nature of his character. When he sees that Lisavet can stop time, he recognizes this as something that he can exploit for his own purposes and to shore up his own power. This moment thus foreshadows the years of abuse that Lisavet will suffer at his hands.

“With one hand, Moira shoved her backward through the door to the time space. Amelia stumbled and fell. Before she could recover, Moira had pulled the door shut, trapping her inside.”

This scene parallels the opening scenes of the novel. Just as Lisavet/Moira was shoved into the time space by her father, she does the same to Amelia. In each case, a parent is acting desperately to protect their child, and this parallelism emphasizes the journey that Moira has undergone; she comes full circle and can truly understand why her father did what he did.

“I was forced into the timekeeper program in his place. The government put me through their three-year training regimen in Moscow. By the time I was allowed to contact my sisters again, they were gone. Nobody could tell me what happened to them. Later, I learned they had died of starvation in an orphanage.”

When Anton opens up to Amelia about his past, his words convey the value of human connection as a means of combating the destructiveness of war. Because Anton is a Russian timekeeper and KGB member, he theoretically should be Amelia’s enemy. Instead, the two meet as adolescents and open up to each other, emphasizing the humanity that exists underneath the conflict between warring nations.

“[Jack was] [c]ompletely unaware that she had just succeeded in lying to him for the very first time without him noticing. She smiled to herself as he went into his office and shut the door. After almost four years since she’d left the time space, she was finally figuring out how to play his game.”

This moment conveys a change in Moira’s character as she works as Jack’s secretary. For years, she was resigned to the fact that Jack had control over her and that she needed to do whatever he said to survive. Now, however, her budding relationship with Ernest causes her to lie to Jack for the first time. These words emphasize one of Lisavet’s/Moira’s most stable character traits: She is willing to sacrifice a great deal for those she loves, even if she doesn’t act to save herself.

“Ernest learned more about his former Russian adversary. About his children, a son and three daughters. About his late wife. In turn, Ernest had told him about the death of his mother and sister as they’d happened, leaning on him in his time of grief.”

The time that Ernest spends with Vasily, learning about his past, parallels Amelia and Anton’s relationship in the present. Despite the ongoing Cold War, Ernest and Vasily form a friendship, emphasizing the value of human connection.

“We’re the only two people in the world who see the whole picture. It all could vanish in a heartbeat, everything we’ve ever held dear slipping right through our fingers. It makes you want to hold everything as you can, but at the same time…it’s impossible to want to hold on to anything at all. So you push it all away.”

Jack’s words provide insight into his character. Although he is largely portrayed as a flat, calculating villain, his explanation of his feelings emphasizes the impact that his job has had on his life. Because he has seen firsthand that loss is inevitable and that memory fades (or is erased), he seeks power and control as a substitute for personal relationships. In this way, he offers a glimpse into who Moira could become, as she, too, is acutely aware of life’s impermanence.

“Even though you took my memories, the ideas you gave me were already rooted deep. And an idea is an impossible thing to kill once it starts to spread. I spent the last ten years of my life following that idea and now there are a dozen others doing the exact same thing.”

Ernest speaks these words to Moira in an effort to convince her that her actions were not futile. While Lisavet herself may have only saved a handful of memories, her actions, as well as the idea of her, sparked timekeepers from around the world to follow in her footsteps. His words remind Moira of the importance of individual memory in combating war and oppression, catalyzing the resolution of her character arc.

“What if the only reason all of us have this collective version of the past…of reality…is because we’ve been systematically constructing it ourselves for thousands of years?”

As Moira and Ernest discuss what the time space truly is and how to destroy it, he posits that the time space is a human construction that “traps” memories in physical form. His words convey the metaphorical nature of the time space, which serves as a representation of history, a human construct shaped by those in power.