Grief

Using both Mukesh's and Aleisha's experiences with loss, the author explores the ways in which the individual might heal from profound grief. In the former half of the novel, Mukesh's wife Naina's passing keeps him from living his life fully. Although it has been two years since Naina's death, flashbacks throughout Mukesh's early chapters indicate that Mukesh has yet to fully recover from losing his wife to a terminal illness. In Chapter 1, Mukesh remembers his daughters sorting through his wife's belongings. After his daughter tucked him in "on the living-room sofa," the narrator inhabits Mukesh's state of mind, saying: "A strange role reversal that made him feel an immense sense of shame. How could he be whole again when his whole had gone for good" (12)? He feels guilty for not helping and supporting his daughters. He feels ashamed that he has let his despair and sorrow...