Beyond the End of the World (The Other Side of the Sky, #2)

by Amie Kaufman

Here, even though I know there’ll be more flowers to water tomorrow, more branches to trim, there’s still something comforting in this kind of work—in knowing I can finish it today, and do it right, and do it well.

Growing things are the place to look for hope,

No matter what else is happening, the garden is always putting forth a new shoot, readying itself in the cer...

my bloodmother would be appalled at the way I’ve been losing my temper. I gather myself, applying one of her earliest lessons and focusing on my senses, rather than my thoughts.

But you may find that as you swim, you grow stronger for the stones in your pockets. You may find you can carry more than you knew.”

No one can force you to carry a stone you didn’t choose. But I do not think anyone else can do it.”

“This is unnecessarily mysterious,” I protest. He laughs softly. “Young man, I was being mysterious when your mother was just a gleam in her mother’s eye. I am unlikely to stop at this late stage.

If you’re alone, then there’s nobody to see you jump at shadows except the cat, and he’s already judging you.

I almost laugh at myself for a moment, but the cat’s stare instructs me to take this moment seriously.

“Where I come from, many people have very little. It makes them angry and afraid, and when they feel that way for long enough, they begin to hate the ones who keep promising to help them.”

If you don’t know what’s happening, my bloodmother often says, then your best move is to shut up until someone tells you, rather than revealing your ignorance.

the divine is created by the power of belief, sustained by those who subconsciously channel the mist and magic into empowering her—I’m

“you can call it prophecy, you can call it destiny, you can call it a very complex set of personality factors, socio-historical forces, and traumatic experiences that you should also discuss with your therapist. You can call it whatever you like. She’s your person.”

“This is why stories are important,” he says quietly. “As soon as we forget where we came from, we start losing track of where we should be trying to go.”

If this endless cycle of exodus and strife tells me anything, it’s that it is the most human thing in the world to disagree. But I think it’s in the trying to come together that we find our purpose.”