The Reading List

Each of the novel’s sections is structured around one of the eight books on Naina Patel’s reading list. As Mukesh, Aleisha, and others make their way through the list, the books, their characters, and their themes all become elements of the novel’s own thematic arguments. Although Mukesh and Aleisha reveal enough of the plots of the other books to provide critical connections, the novel argues that books speaking to books is part of the community of reading that novels have always created.

The first part is centered around The Time Traveler’s Wife, the last book Naina checked out before her death. Audrey Niffenegger’s The Time Traveler’s Wife tells the story of Henry DeTamble, a 20-something librarian in Chicago who is genetically prone to uncontrollable flights into time. Henry meets Clare during one of his time tumbles, and though their relationship is complicated by Henry’s time traveling, the two fall in love, marry, and have a child together. The novel focuses on Clare and how she spends her life waiting for Henry, well into her old age. This book, Mukesh’s first foray into reading fiction, helps him understand how pining for Naina is part of the magic and