Point of View

The novel is written in third person from various limited perspectives. In some stories, the perspectives are obviously tied to a specific character. For example, the first two stories of the novel are set in London in 1901. The first story is from the limited perspective of Matthew Fairchild and the second is from the perspective of Anna Lightwood. In each story, the reader sees situations from the perspective of that character and only that character. The next story, however, is set several decades later in Chattanooga, Tennessee. The perspective changes to Brother Zachariah and Sister Emilia, though this story has a more omniscient feel about it, partly because the story opens without either of those two characters present. Once the story setting is established, the reader sees and experiences only what Brother Zachariah and Sister Emilia witness directly.

The changing perspectives give the reader a...