Point of View

Burnt Shadows is written using a limited omniscient third-person narrator, which frequently switches focus between many of the main characters in the novel. The emotional impact that the novel's events have on the characters' internal lives are explored in great detail. For instance, Raza's illegal journey from Afghanistan to Montreal does not focus on the exact, itinerary-style details of his journey, but instead focuses on the traumatic emotional effect the journey has on him: "At a certain point it started to seem inevitable he would die in the hold. All he could think of was his mother. She'd never know he had died" (343).

While all the events of the novel are written in chronological order -- moving from Nagasaki in the 1940's to New York City at the turn of the 21st century -- many chapters feature a sort of stop-and-start chronology, particularly when the...