Identity
Anton’s wanderlust is fueled by his desire to learn about his lineage because he believes that in discovering the truth about the “other Anton” he would learn more about himself. The theme of identity is closely linked to the theme of otherness because Anton is constantly trying to find out who he is vis-a-vis where he is and who is around him. He is an Arab, but he is living in Israel. He is an Arab, but he is, in language and creed, nearly 100% Jew. He is an Arab but he is a Catholic. This theme asks the poignant question: “Who am I if I do not subscribe to any of the expectations placed upon me by society?”
Otherness/Fish out of Water
Anton Shammas is a fish out of water in more ways than one and this theme of being the odd man out is a core theme of the novel.Anton is outsider in their community: he is an Arab and he is a member of the Roman Catholic minority; in addition, because he has lived in the presence of Jews for so long he writes in Hebrew and identifies with the Jewish nation rather than identifying himself as Palestinian. This too is not a matter of preference or cultural appropriation. Anton is a rare bird, he is an Arab Israeli, in short his very citizenship and cultural identity is a neither-here-nor-there situation. It is this otherness that defines Anton and it is also this otherness that fuels his obsession with uncovering his family lineage, particularly his fixation with Laylah Khoury whose movement from Christianity to Islam is something that strikes a very deep, resonant chord in his being.
Family
Family is another central theme in the novel and more than his quest for identity and his otherness,Anton’s membership to his family is what defines him. If there was any place that could be said where he truly “belonged to” it was in his family and if nothing else it was his family that provided him with a framework for his identity and the set of lenses by which he made sense of the strange world that he was born into.
The Subjectivity of “Truth”
There are several points in the narrative that make the reader question their understanding of the truth such as accounts of the narrator that are revealed later on to be creations of the imagination or recollections that have been passed on through stories for so long that they enter into the realm of myth and fantasy.The juxtaposition of memory, report, myth, and wishful thinking are so blurred that it is actually difficult to determine which is which, but this was exactly what the author was trying to achieve: the interweaving of various forms of narratives into a seamless, flowing whole.
Social Commentary
Anton Shammas inhabits a unique social space as an outsider living inside and together with the people that consider him set apart from their community. It is from this unique vantage point that he narrates his observations and from these observations he provides the reader with something equally unique: the perspective of someone who may be the recipient of violence/prejudice or the counted among those who inflict violence/prejudice. The mass slaughter of refugees in Sabra and Shatila near Beirut in the 80’s is a real historical event that is alluded to briefly to introduce the character of Michael Abyad but the implications of this allusion are loud and clear: if Michael is indeed his long-lost cousin then he should not be showing compassion towards the victims. The victims were slain by a Lebanese Christian splinter group, obliquely saying that she approves of this killing because of the long standing history of violence that has been inflicted by Islamic forces against Christians.