Summary

Section 4

Chapter 1

Pages 233 through 236 -- After the fire, a cloud of fragrant soot hangs over the town and hides the light of dawn, seeming to postpone the start of morning. Out on their verandah, Ambrose and Otoh stand in silence. Ambrose talks about shame and culpability, wishing that his son would simply ask aloud the questions that hang between them. He finally explains to his son that he has slept so much for all these years because he could not face himself or his inability to act decisively on the day Chandin attacked him and Mala. In failing to act, he feels he has not only lost himself, but Mala too, and now wonders if he has also lost Otoh because of his chronic inaction. Ambrose explains that he returned three times to see Mala after that fateful...