Point of View

The novel is written from the first-person point of view of the narrator Sadie Smith. This point of view choice grants the reader access to Sadie’s interior world. Because Sadie is a secret agent and must uphold “the persona of authenticity” the Moulinards expect of her, she actively quashes her true self (245). Her narration is therefore inherently unreliable as she does everything in her power to disguise her real identity and to disassociate from her personal past. As a result, the reader must rely upon subtle context clues in order to understand who Sadie really is and her authentic responses to the narrative world, her circumstances, and surroundings.

Over the course of the novel, Sadie’s first-person narration proves that she is an observant, insightful individual with a keen eye for detail and emotional subtlety. The careful way that she describes her surroundings and...