Chapter 7 'Nauru' — Summary, Themes, and Analysis

⚠️ 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

In 1968, off the coast of Nauru, the narrator (Heilani in this life) lies on the deck of a small red fishing trawler with Elenoa after a week of fishing. The island has been strip-mined for phosphate, leaving a jagged, apocalyptic landscape of limestone pillars and abandoned tram tracks. Nauru gained independence from Britain earlier that year, but the narrator, having lived through many postcolonial periods, is skeptical of the optimism—especially since the island's fortunes were built on phosphate, or as the narrator puts it, bird shit.

Elenoa falls asleep and suffers a violent nightmare, thrashing and moaning as though tortured. The narrator recalls similar episodes, including one in a Vermont asylum. Holding a coral dagger, the narrator briefly considers killing Elenoa in her sleep to spare them both another goodbye, but instead tucks the coral away and comforts her, pressing against her back and soothing her awake. A fleeting vision comes to the narrator: their hands bound with a red ribbon, which vanishes into an empty grave.

Elenoa wakes, embarrassed, and deflects questions about the dream. The narrator asks how Elenoa always finds her across lives. Elenoa describes a tether that thrums between them, drawing her like a magnet, leaving her hungry until she finds the narrator. The narrator feels the tether differently—as a yearning that intensifies rather than eases when they're together.

Elenoa whispers saudade, a Portuguese word the narrator recognizes from a past life in Portugal, where the narrator was called Arden. Elenoa asks directly whether the narrator truly wants to be with her. The narrator affirms this, wishing they could grow old together, play chess, bicker about rain. Elenoa replies that her love could fill an ocean but cannot stop the tide of time.

The narrator realizes Elenoa intends to kill her. Resolving to do it first, the narrator pushes Elenoa onto a barb of coral reef, impaling her. Both die as the sun sets below the horizon.

Key Events

• Elenoa's violent nightmare reveals hidden suffering the narrator has witnessed before (Vermont asylum).

• The narrator chooses comfort over killing with the coral dagger, tucking it away.

• The red ribbon vision appears and vanishes, leaving an empty grave.

• Elenoa explains the tether that draws her to the narrator like a magnet.

• The saudade exchange reveals a past life in Portugal and the name Arden.

• Elenoa's declaration that love cannot stop time.

• The narrator kills Elenoa first, impaling her on coral; both die at sunset.

Character Development

• The narrator (Heilani/Evelyn/Arden): Shows the internal conflict between optimism and resignation. The narrator's