The best downer ending?

Which novel has the most downer ending ever? Perhaps it is Richard McKenna's historical novel The Sand Pebbles, in which U.S. Navy sailor Jake Holman dies while covering the retreat of a shore party.  Or maybe it is R.L. Stien's horror novel Superstitious, in which a beautiful woman named Sara wakes up in a hospital after a harrowing ordeal fleeing demons. Only she has not escaped them because her late demon-possessed lover has left her impregnated with one, she discovers to her screaming horror.   Or it might be Nevil Shute's post-apocalyptic novel On The Beach, in which the northern hemisphere is devastated by an atomic war. Only the southern hemisphere is left, but not for long.   The winds will soon bring the massive amounts of radiation spilling south. Life on Earth thus has only a few months to go by the time the novel begins.  

The first example features a hero dying a hero's death. Not that sad given the circumstances. The second features a standard-issue horror novel ending that can be seen from a mile away. That is more worthy of a yawn than a scream. But how about the third example offered here? What a fate! What a twist! It also is a thundering moral statement which condemns nuclear war. 

What is more, the characters in the novel, do not act depraved or lawless, even with death staring them in the face. Instead, Shute invests in them a quiet dignity that shines to the end. They win the reader's affection to the point you wish they might live. When the inevitable end comes, it is gut-wrenching. Shute does not dwell on the gory details however, which lets his characters keep their dignity to the last.  A far cry from the bullet-riddle corpse of Jake Holman or the demon-infested Sara. Finally, such an end for the characters means that, while sad, it also leaves you thoughtful. 

So On the Beach gets the nomination for novel with the best downer ending. Does anybody else have any candidates they wish to nominate?

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