Past and Present

The plot, structure, and message of the novel all suggest that past history is never dead, and that past history is always integral to understanding the present moment. The structure of the novel itself emphasizes the importance of the way in which history affects the present. While the entire novel is told in third-person-past, it is divided up into two narrative threads: one, which follows Falk and the investigative team, exists in the narrative present; the other, which follows the five women on their terrible journey through the bushland from Thursday afternoon to Sunday evening, exists in the narrative past. Almost every chapter is divided into two sections so that these two plot lines interweave and in this manner we can see how things in the past directly influence things in the present, such as when Lauren gets into a physical confrontation with Alice...