Edwards College

Edwards College is an elite school on the East Coast attended by Will and Phoebe and (in an earlier era) also by John Leal. The college is portrayed as somewhere dominated by wealthy people to the exclusion of students from poorer backgrounds, such as Will.

Noxhurst

Noxhurst is the town in which Edwards College is located. It becomes the center of intense media attention twice during the novel: once as a result of coverage of Liesl’s rape accusation and again after the deaths of five young women as a result of the Jejah terrorist attacks.

North Korean Gulag

The Gulag in North Korea is the backdrop for many of the stories told in the chapters told from the perspective of John Leal, although it is never made certain in the novel whether these stories are true, exaggerated versions of the truth, or outright lies. Equally, it...