Home and place are also themes in this book.Several times throughout the novel, but most dramatically in her interview with the revolutionaries in Chapter 10, it is suggested to Clare that she has a particular sensitivity to "place", that she is restlessly seeking a physical situation, a home, where she can feel safe and that she belongs. This aspect of her life and experience, the narrative suggests, is a characteristic inherited from her parents who both, albeit in different ways and for different reasons, also seek such a "place."