The anonymous narrator is a complicated, introspective person, and although she remains emotionally detached for much of the novel, she gradually undergoes a dramatic transformation as she searches for stability and centeredness in a new place. The narrator is torn between conflicting desires for connection and isolation, and this paradox is evident in her professional encounters and her personal reflections as she attempts to find a place where she feels at home while functioning with enough detachment to ensure her psychological safety. Her relationship with a married man becomes complicated when he leaves her temporarily to visit his wife in Lisbon. His absence and lack of communication send the narrator into an emotional spiral; she misses him, but she also feels foolish for retaining any hope that he will return to her. As her narrative states, “I had made myself too easy to leave, stashed away like a spare part, I had asked for too little, and now it was too late” (142). Friendships also prove challenging for her to foster, and the narrator’s cerebral nature compels her to constantly question other people’s motives and intentions. Her difficult job as a