"It came upon us as a complete surprise. . . Again and again I read the confused accounts of what happened, trying to get to the bottom of the chaos that ruled them."
At the beginning of the book, Adam struggles to make sense of the impending war. His country is facing yet another crisis which he feels on a personal level. Adam throws himself into this controversy even as he daily grows more and more reserved.
"We couldn't bring the boy back. We really should have parted."
Adam and Asya lost their firstborn -- a son -- in a car accident. The loss was so devastating to the couple that Adam believes to this day that he and his wife should have separated. Afterward, they retained no emotional or rare physical intimacy. They became strangers, unable to allow the other to enter into their own grief. More importantly all hope of the future presenting something better was abandoned.
"I throw off the blanket completely, undo the buttons of my pajam top, baring my aching chest to the cool wind. . . And when Mommy wakes me in the morning her voice is vigorous, she draws the blanket from my face (Daddy must have covered me up before he left the house)"
Dafi appears to have some unexplained sexual contact with her father. In this scene she passively describes going to sleep with her shirt open and waking up knowing her father had pulled the blankets over her. This means he entered her room while sleeping and took notice of her nudity. Another significant element of Dafi's description of the incident, aside from her casual tone, is the way in which she addresses her mother as a strong, almost clueless figure of maternal duty. Her mom appears to have no knowledge of the interaction between father and daughter, whether consciously or no.
