Her brother needed her. The thought protected Karin through the alien night.
This moment occurs at the beginning of the book. Karin returns to Kearney after learning her brother has been in an accident. This short quote evokes how attached to Mark she is and how protective she continues to be of him. It describes the way in which she drives through the night with only a single thought in mind: his well-being. Her laser focus shows the care she puts into their relationship and how strongly she holds to their bond, even after so much time has passed.
"My sister? You think you're my sister?" His eyes drilled her. "If you think you're my sister, there's something wrong with your head."
This scene occurs after Mark has woken up from his coma. He no longer believes that his sister is who she claims to be. His suspicious and angry response to her is characteristic of Capgras syndrome, in which people distrust the closest relationships in their lives. His harsh dismissal of her is particularly heartbreaking, as she rushed back to Kearney to care for him and was thrilled to learn that he was waking up from his coma. The realization that something is wrong strikes a double blow, as her hopes of him making a full recovery are quickly dashed.
She was in Daniel's debt again. On top of everything else, he had given her this thread of possibility. And she, once again, had given him nothing. But Daniel, as ever, seemed to need nothing but the chance to give. Of all the alien, damaged brain states this writing doctor described, none was as strange as care.
At this moment, Karin is reflecting on her relationship with Daniel. She reconnects with him after returning to Kearney and he provides her comfort while she is grappling with Mark's condition. This situation makes her unhappy as she feels that they are falling into old patterns. She thinks that he is showing her a great deal of care while she is giving him nothing in return. His good-natured attitude about it only makes her feel worse. She reflects on the fact that Weber, the "writing doctor," has described the brain state of caring as "strange." This demonstrates her belief that Daniel acts so outside of his own self-interest that it is a detriment to his well-being. His selflessness mystifies her.
"It's a feature of Capgras. The subject only misidentifies the people closest to him."
In this quote, Weber describes how Capgras works while comforting Karin. Karin is devastated when Mark accuses her of being an imposter. But she is also hurt when he recognizes Duane, Tommy, and Bonnie. She feels that she has been singled out. Weber reminds her that Mark also misidentified Blackie, his dog, who he loves very dearly. He says this to indicate to her that the disease actually targets the most meaningful relationships in the patient's life, not the least. While this offers Karin some reprieve, it also serves as a reminder of the cruel nature of the disease, as it isolates the sufferer from their most important connections.
Karin tittered. She felt herself losing it. The stress of daily life in her brother's newfound land was pulling her under. Kearney, Nebraska: a colossal fake, a life-sized, hollow replica. She'd thought as much herself, all the while growing up. And again, each time she returned during their mother's final illness. Prairie World.
In this moment, Karin begins laughing uncontrollably after her brother says Kearney is, like her and his dog, an imposter. She laughs because she has had the same thought herself, though in a different way. She has spent so much of her life thinking that Kearney is a fake place, constructed to be the perfect image of the American prairie. This moment shows a strange kind of parallel between Mark and Karin, as he feels something she has always felt about the place where they grew up—but he thinks it because he is delusional. She is left to wonder if she has also been suffering from a similar kind of thinking.
But that's when it started, the switching and imposters, all the medical crap to get Mark Schluter to think that he isn't who he thinks. He needs a witness, but nobody was there... Find him a sandhill, and swear it in. Scan its brain.
In this quote, the narrator reflects Mark's damaged mental state. Mark thinks that someone is out to get him and that they have sent these imposters to pursue him. He also thinks that people were trying to kill him the night of the accident and he needs someone to be a witness to what occurred. This insight into his thought process reveals how deeply in the thrall of paranoid thinking he is. The final line is indicative of how Mark, like Daniel, believes that nature is the only remaining place he can trust, as humans all have their own interests at heart, but cranes can be viewed as impartial observers.
Mark at least was still himself—more than Weber could claim. Method acting, Weber tried to inhabit the man sitting in front of him, weaving theories.
Here, Weber is speaking with Mark, trying to discuss his condition. However, instead of being able to actually focus on Mark and his needs, he is mostly concerned with his own failings as a neuroscientist and researcher. He feels that he is merely "method acting" his way through the conversation, trying to keep up a performance of his impressive stature. This quote shows how Weber is reckoning with his own imposter crisis, as he feels he is not really qualified to be doing what he is doing and is almost completely unable to help or even understand Mark.
They sat at the round vinyl dinette table, jittery with reunion. They did not know, yet, how to be anything but boys together.
Towards the end of the book, Daniel meets up with Mark, in an attempt to reconnect with him. They were previously childhood friends but Mark cut Daniel off abruptly when he falsely assumed Daniel had romantic feelings for him. Powers shows how they are thrilled about the reunion and momentarily revert to a more child-like state. He says that they are only able to be "boys" together because they don't really know each other as the adults that they have grown into being. It is a sharp rendering of this moment as it highlights both their joy and unfamiliarity in this meeting.
She thinks, for an instant, that she does this for the birds. For the river. Then she tells herself it's to save this upright man. But she will save no one, no living thing. She will barely slow the humans, who can't be stopped. She chooses from pure selfishness, as selfish as every human choice. He will hate her now, forever. But finally, he will know what she can give.
In this moment, Karin reveals the developers' plans for the crane refuge to Daniel. She struggles with the decision to tell him what she knows, as it involves admitting that she has been spending time with Karsh, but she decides to tell him anyway. Her motivations for this are complex, as she knows she is doing it in part to rid herself of the guilt of owing Daniel, who is always doing his best to care for her and be nice to her. She ultimately sacrifices any hope of a relationship with him in order to help him fight the developers and finally assuage her sense of being indebted to him.
She fights to retrieve her voice. "What do you mean, Mark? As good as what?"
"I mean, us. You. Me. Here." He points out the window approximately: the Great American Desert. The inch-deep river. Their next of kin, those circling birds. "Whatever you call this. Just as good as the real thing."
This moment is the reconciliation between Karin and Mark. Mark is finally able to recognize that Karin is actually his sister. While the moment might be fleeting, their exchange indicates that they feel happy and serene, as they look out on the landscape of their hometown. When Mark says it's "just as good as the real thing," he means that, for this instant, they are allowed to be joyful.
