The narrator for the majority of the book, Josephine, is dead and discusses how her death and the deaths of other people have helped defined the Lebanon Saman knows so well. The family of Saman is an important aspect of the book because he is always thinking about them and they keep begging him to leave Lebanon and join them. Similar to death, talk of the afterlife is featured extensively when Josephine describes her situation and what it is like to be dead.[1]