Time

The novel explores the way the past and the future are present in the current moment despite the fixed path of time which leads ever forward. The very first line in the novel signifies the importance of time for Tracy, who states: “Time runs my life. A constant measuring of what’s gone and what’s to come” (3). After her father is sentenced to death for a murder he did not commit, Tracy’s life turns into a countdown. A track runner herself, she feels as if she is constantly running down the clock in a fight against the constantly progressing time, which is leading straight to her father’s execution.

Although Tracy’s father’s execution is scheduled for the future, the possibility of his inevitable death haunts her present just as the past memories of their lovely times together as a family haunt her...