The Narrator

The unnamed narrator is the protagonist of the novel and the principle means by which Lahiri communicates the story. She lives alone in an apartment in an unnamed city. She is in her mid to late forties, though she gives little further physical description of herself. Her father died when she was young, though she visits her mother regularly. She works as both a writer and an instructor at a local institution, though she treats her career as a means to make a living rather than a goal in itself.

One of the narrator’s central character traits is her preference for solitude and a lack of any long-term relationships in her life. She calls solitude her “trade” (27), comparing it to a craft that she has spent years perfecting. Though she has had lovers and boyfriends in the past, she lives her life according to her own...