Miriam

“This wasn't like the hardship in books. It wasn't just that characters in books weren't real and Anna and the children were - that part of it was obvious and expected. It was that the hardship in books was written. It had purpose. It was part of a story, and however bleak it looked for the people inside the pages, that only meant there were more pages left before the end - unless it was a tragedy, or something Russian. Even then, things would work out the way they ought. It wasn't true here. Pain was simply pain, and there was nothing to do about it except refuse to let it break you.”
― H.G. Parry, The Magician’s Daughter