Chapter 32: ANNA – A Painful Reunion Across Time

⚠️ Spoiler Warning: This guide contains detailed spoilers for the entire novel. Proceed only if you've finished reading or are comfortable knowing the plot.

Summary

The chapter opens with older Anna arriving in Petrograd on the eve of her mother Xenia’s arrest in February 1917. She hides near the Dubinskys’ house, where her mother will be gravely injured. Anna intends to confront Xenia and persuade her to go home and speak to her younger self.

The narrative then shifts to young Anna’s point of view: she wakes to the front door slamming as Xenia leaves for the protest. She runs to the balcony, calls out, and sings the “Worker’s Marseillaise” to stop her mother. Xenia pauses but continues. Maksim comforts his daughter. Hours pass. Fires and gunshots erupt. Near midnight, Xenia returns, bleeding from a leg wound sustained when the Dubinskys’ house collapsed. Xenia gives young Anna her bear pendants.

Back in 1917, older Anna watches from the alley as Xenia tries to save Bina from the burning house. A wooden beam impales Xenia’s leg. Anna drags her mother to safety. Xenia recognizes Anna and believes she is a ghost. Anna pleads with her to go home and deliver crucial warnings to her younger self: to prioritize family, avoid building weapons, and not let anger consume her. Xenia says she has always been proud of Anna and loves her more than the revolution. As Maksim rushes out, Anna is pulled back to her own time, aware that she has altered the past.

Key Events

Older Anna time-travels to 1917 Petrograd and waits near the Dubinskys’ house.
Young Anna wakes to find her mother gone and tries to stop her from leaving.
Maksim comforts young Anna as the city erupts in revolutionary violence.
Xenia returns home with a severe leg wound after the Dubinskys’ house collapses.
Xenia gives young Anna her bear pendants.
Older Anna witnesses Xenia’s attempt to rescue Bina from the burning house.
Anna helps her wounded mother and they have a heartfelt conversation in an alley.
Xenia, thinking Anna is a ghost, shares her pride and unconditional love.
Anna asks Xenia to deliver specific warnings to her younger self.
Anna is pulled back to her own timeline, having changed her path.

Character Development

Anna (older): Finally confronts the source of her lifelong anger—her mother’s departure. She moves from blame to understanding, realizing Xenia did not choose to leave. Anna gains emotional clarity and a new mission: to save her own future by healing the past.
Xenia: Revealed as more complex than young Anna remembered. She is wounded and vulnerable, trying to save a neighbor’s child. Her fervent revolutionary passion coexists with deep maternal love. She sees ghosts of her own family, hinting at trauma from pogroms.
Young Anna: Experiences the raw fear and abandonment of losing her mother. Her childhood perspective shows both idolization and resentment of Xenia’s political commitment.
Maksim: Portrayed as resigned yet caring, he fails to stop Xenia but remains a stabilizing presence for young Anna.

Themes, Symbols, or Motifs

Time and Regret: The time-jump structure literalizes Anna’s inability to let go of the past. The chapter dramatizes the old adage that we cannot change what happened—but we can change how we carry it.
Mother-Daughter Bonds: The central relationship is re-examined through adult eyes. Xenia’s love is finally voiced, undoing decades of silent hurt. The bear pendants symbolize the chain of maternal care that persists across generations.
Revolution vs. Family: Xenia’s sacrifice highlights the tension between political conviction and personal responsibility. Anna’s final plea—to tell her younger self not to build weapons—fuses both realms: the personal cost of political action.
Memory as Ghost: Xenia’s admission that she sees the dead “all the time” suggests that trauma is a haunting presence. Anna’s time-travel is a literal manifestation of that haunting.
Fire and Destruction: The burning Dubinskys’ house mirrors the burning city of Anna’s own emotional landscape. It also foreshadows the consuming nature of unchecked violence.

Why This Chapter Matters

Chapter 32 is the emotional turning point of the novel. For the first time, older Anna directly confronts her mother and receives the love and pride she craved. The conversation recontextualizes Xenia’s leaving as a forced separation, not an abandonment. This revelation allows Anna to release decades of bitterness and reframe her own life’s choices—especially her relationship with her daughter Molly. The chapter also plants critical seeds for the plot: Anna’s warning not to build weapons foreshadows her later work on the atomic bomb, and her desperate plea to “keep your daughter close” sets up the climactic choices ahead.

Study Questions and Answers

Question: Why does older Anna believe she has changed her path at the end of the chapter?
Answer: She successfully delivers a message to Xenia, asking her to warn younger Anna about the dangers of building weapons and the importance of family. By altering what her younger self hears, Anna hopes to change her own future and avoid the mistakes that led to her unhappiness.
Question: How does the author use the bear pendants as a symbol through the chapter?
Answer: The pendants first appear when young Anna receives them from her bleeding mother. They then appear again as old Anna notes she left them with Molly. The pendants become a physical link between mother, daughter, and granddaughter—a tangible token of love that transcends time and trauma.
Question: What does Xenia’s claim that she sees ghosts reveal about her character and the novel’s treatment of trauma?
Answer: Xenia lives with the constant presence of her murdered family from the pogrom, revealing that her revolutionary fervor is partly a response to unresolved grief. The novel suggests that traumatic memories never fully fade; they manifest as haunting presences that must be acknowledged to be healed.