Summary
The narrator begins the final section of the book with a description of May's behavior. He notes that she was constantly curious, but also showed a great deal of resolve in the face of trouble. He recounts a time when he went with her and Tridib on a drive, and they saw a gravely injured dog in the road. May insists they stop and go back. She gets out of the car and attempts to kill it out of mercy, but struggles. Tridib assists her and, after they leave, acknowledges it was the right thing to do. He tells her he would expect her to do the same for him, and she agrees, though is frightened by the serious tone he takes when he says it. Back in the more recent past, the narrator asks her if she loved Tridib before apologizing again for his behavior.
Later, the narrator meets up with Ila at a concert at St. Martin in the Fields in London. He discovers that she has been crying. He then delves into various memories of Tridib, depicting a time when he wandered off against his mother's wishes, not understanding that there were bombing raids occurring all around them. The narrator adds that Tridib told him a story about the mythic figure Tristan the last time he saw him, right before leaving for Dhaka, making it clear that he is no longer alive. Returning to Ila's storyline, the narrator says that Nick had been cheating on her with multiple women in different countries. She also reveals that she was constantly lying about her life when they were young, in an effort to seem happier and more successful than she actually was. The narrator flashes back to the moments before the fateful trip to Dhaka, describing his family's preparation. He then imagines their arrival, envisioning Robi's youthful excitement as well as his grandmother's shock at the changes in the neighborhoods. Shaheb expresses concern about visiting Th'amma's uncle, but she overrules him, showing an immediate determination to see him.
The narrator then shifts back to Calcutta and describes a disturbing school day that he experienced at the same time as the rest of his family was in Dhaka. He says that he got on a mostly deserted school bus and saw empty streets. There are widespread rumors that the local water is poisoned. At school he overhears the yelling of a mob and gunshots in the distance. Classes are canceled for the day and the children are sent home early. During a frightening bus ride, they are confronted by a mob and the driver races through the streets as the children are uncertain of what is going to happen to them. In this moment, the narrator says that he realizes that this recognition of how perilous normalcy and stability can be is what separates the rest of the world from people who have lived on the "subcontinent."
Back in Dhaka, the narrator's grandmother visits her old neighborhood and expresses shock at how much has changed. They are shown around by a mechanic who guides them through the area and takes them to her family home, which has become a motorbike repair shop. They are taken to the home of her uncle, Jethamoshai, after meeting his caretaker Khalil. He does not recognize her and treats her very rudely. He then proceeds to make inappropriate comments to May. Tridib intervenes and explains the purpose of their visit but Jethamoshai says that he does not want to leave. They are prepared to give up when Saifuddin intervenes and says that he will have a better life away from Dhaka. They take him to Khalil's rickshaw and drive a short distance before encountering a violent mob that is burning chair legs on the roadside.
The speaker moves away from this moment and describes the silence that he feels prevents him from writing about Tridib's death. He then remembers a time, much later, when he attended a lecture and was discussing riots with a colleague. No one remembers the events to which he refers, and he becomes troubled by the potential faultiness of his memory. He and this colleague decide to go to the library and sort out the matter. After a great deal of searching, he remembers that there was a cricket match that day and is able to locate the story about the riots in both Calcutta and Dhaka. After further research, he discovers these events were the result of an ongoing conflict in the city of Khulna over the theft of a Muslim relic. He reflects on how history hinges on so many small coincidences and how in that one moment those three places were strongly connected by terrible violence from a shared source. After the narrator learns of Tridib's death, he says he immediately wondered why his father let him leave.
He then recalls that, at a later time, his grandmother sold all of her prized jewelry to support the effort, emphasizing its importance. He depicts a scary scene in which she listens intently to the radio before driving her fist through it. The narrator has a panic attack and is sedated; before he goes under his father lets it slip that Tridib was murdered and did not die in an accident, as he had previously said. He says that when he was first told about it, his father said there was an accident and that he couldn't discuss it with anyone because of Tridib's father's government role. The narrator moves forward in time and mentions the first time Robi ever talked about Tridib's death. He describes a night in which he went out to dinner with Ila and Robi at an Indian restaurant in London. They find the food to be inauthentic and have an unremarkable meal. Eventually, the owner of the restaurant joins them at the table and begins talking about Dhaka. Robi becomes increasingly agitated and leaves. Ila and the narrator follow him out. He tells them about a recurring nightmare he has about that day and how he feels paralyzed and speechless in the moment when he sees Tridib get out of the car. They embrace and comfort him. Later, Ila tells the narrator to forget all about what she said the other night, as she was not in her right mind. She says that she and Nick are going on vacation, suggesting that she will continue to live in the fantasy of their happy marriage, while not acknowledging its brokenness.
Finally, the narrator goes to visit May Price the night before he is leaving London. They have dinner and she reveals to him the circumstances of Tridib's death. When confronted by the mob, she saw that the narrator's grandmother was going to abandon her uncle and Khalil on the rickshaw. She attempts to intervene, but Tridib throws her out of the way. The mob brutally murders Tridib, Jemosthai and Khalil. May says she has been forever haunted by this moment, and asks the narrator if she was responsible for his death. She weeps and he comforts her. He spends the night at her house, seeming to feel some amount of closure at finally being able to understand his beloved uncle.
Analysis
This final section of the novel brings all of its major themes to a boiling point. After implying its occurrence throughout the book, the narrator finally addresses the nature of Tridib's death, circling it repeatedly before finally describing it at the very end. What strikes the narrator about it on reflection is the chance circumstances that precipitated the scene in Dhaka. When he goes to the library and discovers that the riots were caused by a religious conflict in a city relatively far from Dhaka, he ponders the fact that events from such a distant place could cause the most significant and horrible moment in his life. Unlike Ila, he recognizes that borders do not determine where important things occur and that history hinges on many small occurrences.
In many ways, the main tragedy of the book is the fact that in seeking to reunite the remaining members of her family, the narrator's grandmother caused it to unravel. Her single-minded determination to bring her uncle to Calcutta caused his death as well as Tridib's and Khalil's. Additionally, in the moment when the mob appears, his grandmother wants the driver to plow ahead, abandoning her uncle and Khalil to the violence and mayhem. What she reveals in this moment is that her own instinct for survival overrides any of the dedication to family she claimed to possess earlier. Her later focus on the war effort, as well as her rampant nationalism, are revealed to be hollow in this moment, as they are driven by a desperate need to make up for the horror that she caused and refuses to acknowledge.
At the same time, the end of the story also shows the healing potential of familial love. In the scene where Robi talks openly about his brother's death, Ila and the narrator embrace him. Earlier, he leaves a restaurant abruptly after the owner starts talking about a certain neighborhood in Dhaka. He then goes on to describe a dream he keeps having about that moment, in which he is powerless to save his brother. The narrator remembers the moment of the hug poignantly, showing a great deal of care for him. While the climax of the story comes at the very end of the novel, this is the one moment in which a true, and uncomplicated, familial bond is shown. The care that they show Robi is selfless and unaffected by the conflicts over class and tradition that came between them earlier. The narrator, unlike his grandmother, seems able to understand that this unobserved moment of love is a more meaningful aspect of family life than the fulfillment of duty and obligation described elsewhere.
The sad conclusion to Nick and Ila's love story fits well with the earlier descriptions of their personalities. Both of them show a tendency to lie and exaggerate. Ila does this more innocently as a child, but Nick is dishonest as an adult about the circumstances under which he lost his job. This shared habit reaches its climax when Ila reveals that Nick has been cheating on her with other women, showing that he has always been deceitful and careless. However, when Ila tells the narrator at the novel's end that he should forget about what she said earlier, as she and Nick are very happy, she shows that she is equally content to continue living in her fantasy world, rather than acknowledge the reality of their bad marriage. Without stating it, the narrator shows that the dishonesty in their relationship would eventually ruin it entirely.
The first section concludes with the narrator describing the trauma that compelled him to recount these events. In contrast, the second concludes on a more optimistic note. The book ends because the narrator has found some measure of closure in May's story. He is able to recognize his uncle's heroism and sacrifice, finding some peace in understanding the choice that he made in that moment. He no longer needs to revisit these memories as he momentarily glimpses some meaning in his uncle's death.
