Superb. Seldom do I read books with 1000+ pages. A Traitor to Memory is compelling -- I read much later into the night than I intended. Character development is deep and wide. Every word essential. Memorable passages: Chap. 6 - "Life wasn't a continuum of events, although it wore the guise of exactly that. Instead, it was actually a carousel. In infancy, one mounted a galloping pony and started out on a journey during which one assumed that circumstances would change as the expedition continued. But the truth of life was that it was an endless repetition of what one had already experienced...round and round and up and down on that pony. Unless one dealt with whatever challenges one was meant to deal with along the route, those challenges appeared again and again in one form or another till the end of one's days." End of Chap 19: "It's odd, isn't it?" she said to me. "One can earnestly believe one has a particular type of relationship with another person, only to discover it was never what one thought in the first place." Chap 21: How our pasts define our presents, Leach thought now. We're not even aware that it's happening, but every time we reach a conclusion, make a judgement, or take a decision, the years of our lives are stacked up behind us : all those dominoes of influence that we don't begin to acknowledge as part of defining who we are. Chap 22: "The relationship between fathers and sons is always complicated," Lynley said. "More than mothers and daughters?" (Barbara Havers asks) "Indeed. Because so much more goes unspoken." Chap 28: I've learned that things work out the way they're meant to work out no matter what we want, so its best to keep our wants to a minimum and to thank our stars, our luck, or our gods that we've been given as much as we have. Chap 29 - Nkata: And down below at what went for the garden, the grass and flower beds of ancient times were now an expanse of mud across which lager cans, take-away food wrappers, disposable nappies, and other assorted human detritus made an eloquent statement about the level of frustration and despair that people sank to when they believed -- or their experience taught them -- that their options were limited by the colour of their skin.