Point of View

The point of view of the novel changes throughout different chapters, and even inside certain chapters. The first chapter is narrated in the first-person-present by Shakbatina. She begins with the origin story of Grandmother of Birds, which she tells in the past-tense. Then, Shakbatina narrates the events of her life that have led up to her present moment, in which she is being executed in exchange for peace between her people and the Red Fox village, who have accused Shakbatina’s eldest daughter, Anoleta, of murdering one of their women. Shakbatina narrates her gory death and transitions to her spirit’s journey into the other world as she dies.

After the first chapter ends, the second one begins with a traditional third-person narrator that focuses in on Auda in the present tense, though forays into the past tense as her personal history are frequent. In...