Point of View

Mischling is narrated in the first person by a set of twins, Pearl and Stasha Zamorski, and the point-of-view alternates between them from chapter to chapter. The story is told in the past tense, both narrators are telling it from some point in the future that allows them to fill in details that would come later. For example, Stasha remarks that the sight of Bruna's murder would continue to haunt her over the years, and that “history would say” that 7,000 prisoners stayed behind at Auschwitz as the death marches began (185). When Pearl is rescued, she sets the scene as, “What I'd later learn was January 27, 1945” (205). These instances are helpful to orient the reader in the scope and magnitude of what occurred, as well as the time frame. In later scenes, the author describes Peter and Pearl meeting after the war at the trial of Nurse...