Point of View

The Prophets maintains for the most part a third-person limited point of view, alternating between different characters. In places, the narrator’s point of view merges closely with the character’s, testing the boundary between third and first-person narration by expressing (rather than simply describing) someone’s thoughts and feelings. “Whatever,” for instance, appears without inverted commas or italics to indicate that Puah is speaking or thinking, and thus bypasses convention in order to integrate Puah’s voice into the narrative voice (99).

However, the novel refuses to neatly allocate attention to one character at a time, preferring instead to mix perspectives so that the reader has to pay attention. “Balm in Gilead” shifts back and forth between the different women. No chapter follows a single character exclusively, even when seemingly dedicated to that character. “Adam” covers the same events as “Paul” without any attempt to...