Point of View

The novel is narrated in the third-person, always from the perspective of Jude, a young Syrian girl who lived with her parents and older brother in a traditional household until she and her mother were forced to flee to the United States to escape the war’s growing violence. She is consumed by loneliness as she attempts to navigate the combination of being separated from her father and brother so young and living as a Syrian in the United States without speaking perfect English, feeling separated from her culture.

Jasmine Warga does not place any limitations on the access to Jude’s inner thoughts, allowing the reader to understand her true motivations, fears, and conflicts. In her childlike manner, Jude is often completely honest with the people in her life that she feels as though she can trust, but she does not always speak her...