Point of View

The novel is told in the third person with an omniscient narrator, but the events depicted are shown from Fadi’s perspective. There are no events depicted in the novel which Fadi wasn’t present for, including an argument between his parents when Fadi was only six years old. The argument about whether or not the family should return to Afghanistan when Habib finished his PhD and his student visa ran out is included in the narrative in a level of detail which Fadi could not possibly have recalled himself, as it was so long ago and he was so young, but it continues the novel’s use of Point of View by ensuring that Fadi is present for everything that is depicted in the novel.

Often Fadi hears about important events but is not present for them himself, meaning that the reader finds out...