Part 7, p. 211-217 Summary

In this final section, Kien hopes that he will find Phuong and be able to recover from his traumas. This hope is echoed in dreams of her again calling for him from across a river, as "the light of love shining from deep in his childhood."

The point of view then shifts written in the first-person perspective and past tense by a neighbor. The neighbor does not notice Kien leave but does notice the mute girl clean up the apartment and put the manuscript together, later giving it to the narrator. The narrator describes his experience of reading the manuscript and trying to put it together, commenting on its lack of flow and structure, inconsistency of detail, and the fact that "the author had written because he had to write, not because he had to publish." The narrator then...