Point of View

Kate Moretti relates her novel The Vanishing Year from the first-person limited perspective from the point of view of main character and principal protagonist, Zoe. Because only Zoe knows the full details of her past – things kept hidden from everyone else – it is only natural that Zoe should tell her own story. This gives readers a unique, firsthand glimpse into the thoughts, feelings, and history of Zoe – and the reader experiences and understands things the way Zoe experiences and understands them.

This perspective in turn allows readers a unique place from which they may consider and evaluate Zoe’s thoughts and feelings, and how these might or might not be wrong in the context of what is known. Here, the reader becomes an objective observer, whereas Zoe remains a personally-involved experiencer of events. The limited aspect of the narrative allows readers to learn and know...