With a bow to Cynthia, I too was moved by Noa's description of her failing memory. "Events slip off their shelves into the wrong year, and I'm not always sure I'm putting them back in their proper home."
The sentence is particularly poignant as it follows an eclectic list of the sense memories she lives with--the names of the jurors who sentenced her to death, the scent of her grandmother and first boyfriend's cigarette, the feel of her embossed high school diploma. And, it's followed by a rare admission of the pain of her ten years on death row, a loneliness bred in isolation fron human contact.
Another of the many phrases that caught my attention comes when Ollie has confessed Noa about being present for part of her trial and the effect it had on him. For the first time she believes in his commitment to fight for her. She has a champion, someone who cares. And when he tells her their next step is to file the writ, she is unable to surpress her smile, a big hopeful grin. Here's an unexpected glimpse of a younger Noa, a girl with a promising future. But hope feels foreign to her and she adds, "It's funny how undressed a smile can make you feel."