Asymmetry

Not surprisingly, given its title, Halliday's novel explores and actualizes the theme of asymmetry, all while posing the question of whether that condition has the ability to create a fuller narrative picture than a "symmetrical" novel could. The novel is composed of three seemingly disparate sections: the first covering Alice and Ezra's relationship; the second describing Amar's airport detention and reflection on his past; and the third presenting Ezra's BBC interview. On their faces, these sections would not immediately seem to compose a holistic and contiguous narrative, but Halliday uses the novel to disprove that assumption.

Halliday draws connections between the sections that are not blatant but nonetheless detectable, and that bridge the stories' barriers of time and space. Alice and Amar read many of the same books. Alice wonders if, with her background, she could ever conjure the consciousness of a Muslim man, and Amar's...