Point of View

The novel is told in the third-person limited point of view behind Amar, Layla, and Hadia for the first three sections of the novel. Within each of these sections, only those characters' emotions are explored as they make assumptions about how the others are feeling at any given moment. This leads to misunderstandings as some of the characters, particularly Layla and Amar, do not speak to each other about important issues. One example of this is the relationship with Amira. While Amar and even Rafiq sees it as a positive, Layla believes Amira is a distraction that will keep Amar from his studies. Ironically, Amar was invested in his school work because of Amira, as he believes he can only become a man worthy of marriage by studying hard and becoming a doctor as is expected of him. When he loses Amira, he loses all...