Michael's apartment

Sara lives with Michael in Dublin, in an apartment they share. The first time she visits, she finds his place a little gross, but endearing. "A pile of his dirty clothes on the washing machine. I pulled out a Darth Vader T-shirt from the heap and checked it out. It was huge and smelled like pot" (21). Later, after she moves in, they buy an avocado plant together. Even though Sara hates plants, the tree continues to grow, an emblem of their stubbornly stable relationship: "The avocado tree kept growing, silent and still. Its stubborn life embarrassed me" (28). But the most striking thing about Michael's apartment is his bookshelf. On it is a copy of Treasure Island, a book that was one of the defining appeals to his character, one of the mysterious reasons that Sara decided to stay with him. Later in the novel, readers learn that...