Summary

Chapter 41 returns to Ted’s childhood, showing Joar at home caring for an injured bird with his mother. Joar’s mother is loving but overwhelmed, constantly criticized, yet fiercely devoted to her son. Ted recounts how Joar learned to nurture fragile things despite growing up in a damaged home, and how their shared jokes and routines were tiny acts of survival. The chapter ends with Joar’s violent father comes home, noticing his family’s happiness—something that never ended well in that household.

Chapter 42 follows Ted and Louisa at sunrise after their swim, wrapped in towels as they talk about ashes, grief, and memory. They joke gently, but the conversation deepens when Louisa reflects on Fish and Ted shares painful truths about his mother and childhood. Their connection grows through vulnerability: cigarettes evoke memories, and Ted’s stories reshape Louisa’s assumptions...