The Bonds That Anchor Us: Family and Brotherhood in City of the Plague God

The Thematic Core: Family as the Ultimate Weapon

In City of the Plague God, Sarwat Chadda builds a story in which the deepest wells of courage are not found in ancient swords or divine powers, but in the everyday commitments of family. The novel asks a deceptively simple question: what would you risk for the people you love? For Sikander Aziz, the answer is everything—his safety, his future, even his mortality. The theme of family and brotherhood operates on three distinct levels: the blood bond between Sik and his deceased brother Mo, Sik’s fierce determination to protect his parents, and the adoptive motherhood of the goddess Ishtar. Together, these strands form a web of belonging that defines heroism as an act of love rather than conquest.

Three Acts of Loyalty: Tracing the Theme Through the Plot

Act One: The Ghost Who Won’t Leave

The novel opens with Sik working the late shift at his family’s deli, a space saturated with Mo’s presence. Photographs, preserved flowers, and the lingering smell of lemon cleaner make Mo feel alive. Sik carries on imaginary conversations with him, even arguing over small things like Daoud wearing Mo’s leather jacket. This nightly ritual is not merely grief—it is a promise to keep Mo’s memory active, to prevent the deli from becoming a museum of loss. The author’s note later clarifies that Sik’s “jihad” is a personal struggle to improve and protect family, not a violent crusade. This early section establishes that family, even when fractured by death, remains the lens through which Sik sees the world.

When the demons Sidana and Idiptu attack the apartment and destroy the deli, Sik’s mother and father react with refugee dread—they have lost everything before. Sik’s immediate thought is not for himself but for the deli, the physical symbol of their hard-won stability. He tells himself “I would make everything better for them. Somehow I’d fix this.” That determination becomes the engine of the entire plot.

Act Two: The Substitute Mother and the Promise of Resurrection

In the netherworld, the family theme expands to include Ishtar. She is a goddess of love and war, but Chadda portrays her as a fiercely protective adoptive mother to Belet. When Belet speaks of her own deceased parents—a doctor and an engineer killed in Baghdad—Ishtar stepped in to raise her. This relationship mirrors Sik’s bond with Mo: both pairs are bound by loss and a vow to care for the living. Ishtar’s willingness to enter Kurnugi to save her sister Erishkigal, and her later sacrifice of her own freedom to help Sik, demonstrate that the goddess operates by the same familial logic as the thirteen-year-old hero.

Sik’s encounter with the ghost of Mo in the underworld deepens the theme. Mo has been dead for two years, yet he appears carefree, stirring hot chocolate by a fire. Sik immediately begins calculating how to trade his own immortality to bring Mo back—a dangerous plan that Ishtar warns against. She points out that the family would then mourn Sik instead. This moment exposes the complexity of grief: Sik’s love for Mo makes him willing to erase himself, but the story argues that love must serve the living, not the dead. The flower of immortality becomes a symbol of this tension—it can save a life, but only if used selflessly and wisely.

Act Three: Homecoming and the Renamed Deli

The resolution in Chapter 41 brings the theme full circle. After Nergal’s defeat, Sik’s parents recover from their comas and reveal shared dreams of Mo—a sign that their bond transcends death. The family paints and prepares the deli for reopening, but now it is renamed “Mo’s.” This is not an act of clinging to the past; it is a transformation of grief into a living memorial. Belet visits with gifts—Ishtar’s Heart flowers and Gilgamesh’s royal seal—but she insists Sik stay with his family rather than follow her on a new quest. The novel ends with the deli described as “a place of comfort and belonging,” affirming that family is not a limitation but a sanctuary.

Characters and Symbols: How Relationships Carry the Theme

Every major character in City of the Plague God is defined by a family role that they either embrace or reject. Mo is the idealized older brother whose absence still shapes Sik’s choices. Sik’s parents are the vulnerable anchors that keep him grounded in reality. Belet is the sisterfigure who teaches Sik that home is not a place but a collection of shared memories—she treasures a single wrinkled photo of her parents. Ishtar is the adoptive mother who shows that divine power can be channeled into nurturing care. Even Gilgamesh, the legendary king, appears as a failed family figure—his quest for immortality was driven by the loss of Enkidu, a brother-in-arms. The story hints that his lies (scratched into the slaughterhouse walls) may have been his inability to accept that love, not power, is the only force that lasts.

Symbols reinforce this message. Mo’s promise—the vow Sik made to protect his parents—is not a physical object but a moral compass. The Lamassu, a protective winged creature from Mesopotamian myth, appears implicitly in the idea that family members watch over one another even from beyond. The destroyed deli becomes a metaphor for broken homes, and its rebuilding symbolizes the resilience of love.

Complexity and Contradiction: When Family Love Turns Painful

The novel does not shy away from the darker edges of family. Sik’s conversations with Mo are not entirely healthy; the school counselor calls them a coping mechanism, and Sik admits that “I couldn’t just forget about my brother and get on with my life.” There is a tension between honoring the dead and living fully in the present. Mo himself, in Sik’s imagination, urges his brother to let go: “Don’t forget me, Yakhi. / Never.” But the story suggests that remembering does not have to mean paralysis—Sik eventually learns to keep Mo’s spirit alive without sacrificing his own future.

Ishtar also embodies contradiction. She is both a goddess of love and a goddess of war, capable of tearing apart enemies and soothing a child’s fear. Her love for Belet is genuine, yet she nearly annihilates Sik in a rage. The plague god Nergal, by contrast, represents the total absence of family: he is old, sick, lonely, and feeds on his own demons. His “plague dogs” are deformed humans, a perversion of community. The contrast is stark: those who fight for family (Ishtar, Sik, Belet) ultimately prevail, while Nergal, who fights only for destruction, collapses into isolation.

Study Questions and Answers

1. How does Sik’s imaginary relationship with Mo evolve over the course of the novel?
   Answer: Sik begins by having nightly arguments with Mo to cope with grief. As the plot progresses, he learns to distinguish between healthy remembrance and unhealthy fixation. By the end, he still misses Mo, but he focuses on building a future for his family rather than trying to bring Mo back.

2. Why does Ishtar choose to stay in Kurnugi rather than return to the living world?
   Answer: Ishtar’s decision is rooted in family loyalty. She entered the underworld to rescue her sister Erishkigal, but after Nergal’s defeat, she chooses to remain as part of a bargain that protects Belet and Sik. Her sacrifice mirrors the theme that love often requires staying behind so that others can move forward.

3. What does the renamed deli “Mo’s” symbolize about the family’s relationship with grief?
   Answer: The renaming transforms Mo from a lost presence into a permanent part of the family’s daily life. The deli becomes a living memorial where food, laughter, and work continue. It symbolizes that family bonds are not broken by death but can be integrated into a new chapter of love.

4. In what ways does Belet’s backstory parallel Sik’s own experience of family loss?
   Answer: Belet lost her parents to violence in Baghdad, just as Sik lost Mo in a war zone. Both children are raised by substitute guardians—Belet by Ishtar, Sik by his parents and Mo’s memory. Their shared grief creates a bond of understanding, and both must decide whether to let loss define them or to seek connection.

5. How does the author’s note reframe the concept of jihad in relation to family?
   Answer: Chadda writes that Sik’s jihad is “his noble struggle” to improve and protect his loved ones. He explicitly contrasts this personal, defensive meaning with the violent misinterpretations often seen in media. In the context of the novel, family loyalty is the highest expression of faith, and fighting for one’s family is a sacred duty.