mother and daughter relationships Quotes

“She came round where I could see her, her arms halfway stretched out as though she would have liked to embrace me but dared not. I jumped aside. Did I think her touch would taint me? Somehow infect me with the weakness I perceived in her? ‘You could have done anything, been anything you wanted.’ ‘But I am what I wanted to be,’ she said letting her arms fall to her sides. ‘I chose. No one made me become what I am.‘”

In Venice, Italy, ten-year-old Elisa finds she must deal with all the unexpected consequences of her beloved eccentric grandmother’s transformation into a giant Aldabra tortoise, native to a small group of coral islands in the Seychelles.