The Last Murder at the End of the World

by Stuart Turton

“Some people are born knowing what they’re for, and others take a little longer to work it out.

This is the way they revere the dead. They remember what they offered the world and what everybody else has to do to fill the gap. There are no prayers here, no thoughts of an afterlife. The reward for a good life is the living of it.

“Why doesn’t anybody question anything?” she asks her grandfather, focusing on him once again. “They like being happy,” he says simply. “I’m not trying to change that.” “Yet answers nearly always do,” he replies, waving away the mosquitoes. Dusk brings them out in thick,

“What’s the use of loving somebody so much they can’t stand being in the same room as you?

Love is simply a matter of what people need and what they lack. It’s two broken things fitting together for a time.

“After my dad drowned, I wouldn’t go near the sea, not for anything,” Clara says, leaning forward to peer at the distant ground. “My mum let me be afraid for a couple of weeks. Then, one day, she walked me out to the pier, right to the water’s edge, and told me that everything we fear finds us eventually, so there’s no point trying to outrun it. We spent an hour on that pier, then finally she made me jump in with her.” “It must have worked,” says Hui admiringly. “You’re not afraid of anything.” “Of course I am,” replies Clara. “I just jump anyway.”

Children always ask this question. They’re more perceptive than adults. His curiosity will dim eventually. Adults are allergic to complication.

Sometimes the only way to win a game is to let the pieces think they’re the ones playing it.

humanity does not easily abandon its pleasures, even the vile ones.

There are moments in history when entire empires, whole branches of the future rest precariously on the words of a single person. Usually, they’re not even aware of it. They don’t have time to plan or consider. They simply open their mouths and speak, and the universe takes on a new pattern.

I’ve always pitied humanity its lack of direction and thought it entirely wasteful that so many lives were allowed to wither on the vine before the apocalypse. I was created knowing exactly what I was for, and I’ve sought to offer the villagers the same gift. Purpose is something that must be given, or it will be endlessly sought.

I’ve learned that the only guaranteed defense against grief is not loving at all.

She can’t imagine how hard that was for her, to be full of doubt in a world of conviction.

I didn’t realize you could stay with somebody and still abandon them, but that’s what I did.

Sometimes the smoke is more useful than the fire.