When you kill someone, something from that person passes to you - a sigh, a smell or a gesture. I call it "the curse of the victim." It clings to your body and seeps into your skin, going all the way into your heart, and thus continues to live within you. I carry with me the traces of all the men I have killed. I wear them around my neck like invisible necklaces, feeling their presence against my flesh, tight and heavy. In every murderer breathes the man he murdered.

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About Elif Shafak

Elif Shafak was a contemporary Turkish novelist, essayist and women's rights activist. Elif Shafak is a Turkish-British novelist, essayist, public speaker, political scientist, and activist. Read more on Wikipedia →

Themes

  • Death — Contemplations on mortality, loss, and the legacy we leave

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