Summary

In Chapter 16, Ba’s death arrives through the slow, frightening erosion of her certainty about place. She wakes in the dark and begins packing as if she is traveling, insisting she must return to Rangoon, while Dadaji trails behind her trying to talk her back into the present. Mina Foi, already exhausted by caregiving and by the loneliness of divorce, watches the scene unfold as if it is both family crisis and private punishment. When Ba dies, Dadaji’s grief takes the form of anger and accusation, and he lashes out at the cook and at the household routine as though someone’s negligence has caused an inevitable loss. Papa hears the news at a distance, and his inability to grieve with clarity adds to the sense that the family’s inner life is increasingly separated by geography as well as by temperament.

When...