Opening Line
The novel’s very first line is steeped in metaphor. One rule of thumb that rarely gets broken in the world of literature is this: when a novel opens with a metaphor, chances are that the rest of the book is also going to depend heavily on figurative language. It is not a hard and fast rule, of course.
“Rani’s soul escaped and floated close to the ceiling directly above the operation table.”
Page 2
The first sentence on the second page of the novel confirms that the rule of thumb is still a safe bet. A mere three paragraphs later and the metaphorical language has become more intense, extended and fused with fantasy:
“Shahana could see germs looking everywhere—oozing out of walls, bursting through floors, crawling along bannisters, malicious, threatening.”
An Opening Line That Isn't
So rife with metaphorical imagery is the novel that a sentence which isn’t even the opening line of a chapter is so strong that it could be an opening line to a story. Who wouldn’t read on to see what happens after coming across this line?
“It all began with a rather silly dream in which she saw herself dressed as a lorry driver trying to drive a massive juggernaut through a no entry bridge.”
"like a snail"
This is a very specific image used for the sake of comparison in not one, but two different similes in the novel. The first describes how Rani curls in bed one night. The second occurrence, on the next to last page of the book, compares an image in a painting of a woman holding a pearl “clutched to her belly, as she stood, not curled round it like a snail, but upright.”
Closing Line
The book opens with metaphor and also closes on a metaphor:
“`Keeping body and soul together’ was a struggle which had acquired for her a rather special significance”
