definition of life in a medical dictionary: “'A constellation of vital phenomena—organization, irritability, movement, growth, reproduction, adaptation.' As biological life is structured as a constellation of six phenomena, the narrative life of this novel is structured as a constellation of six point-of-view characters."

The action takes place primarily in Chechnya as characters are caught in the complex web of hatred and retaliation between Russians and Chechnyans, and also within the Chechnyan community in terms of who can be trusted and who is willing to sell out his neighbor or even a family member for the promise of personal safety. A little girl hiding in the woods watches her father being snatched away by Russian soldiers, Their neighbor, Akhmed, takes her to a place of relative safety, a struggling hospitalwhere the sole remaining physician is a no-nonsense woman by the name of Sonja Rabina. Sonja and her sister have a complex relationship that plays a significant role in the narrative arc of this richly conceived set of stories.

The action unspools around the attempts by Sonja and Akhmed to protect the little girl, Havaa, from those who would want to kill her merely because of her family affiliation and the perceived treachery on the part of her family. Layered into the telling of these stories is a troubled relationship between a father and son who see the complexities of the war through different eyes.

This is at its core an exploration of the power of love to survive as an inextinguishable spark in the midst of the horrors and