“You know something?” he said. “Whatever happens without us, one day will happen without others too. It’s a circle. Only we sleep standing up inside it.”

Andreas nodded and kept walking. He was not in the mood for wisdom, but neither did he have the cruelty left to despise it. He went on and, from a first floor balcony in an old apartment building crowded with satellite dishes, forgotten laundry, and white plastic chairs, he heard a canary singing before sunrise had even arrived.