A Constellation of Vital Phenomena

After Havaa’s father Dokka is captured at the beginning of the novel, he tells Havaa to hide in the woods with her blue suitcase filled with souvenirs. As the novel progresses, the reader learns that Havaa’s suitcase is filled with items given to Dokka as payment by the refugees who boarded at his house. Rather than playing with toys or doing homework, Havaa plays and learns from “the plastic figurine of a ballerina in pirouette, the field guide to Caucasian flora, and whatever else her father and guest agreed was worth a rickety bunk bed on a winter’s night” (136). Throughout the novel, many specific objects are described, providing insight into the people who once owned them.

When Natasha and Sonja are finally reunited, Sonja gives Natasha a nutcracker in the shape of a Buckingham Palace Guard, which she purchased in London. Natasha takes the nutcracker when she runs away from Volchansk for the second time. Natasha ends up passing through Eldár and staying with Dokka and Havaa, and she gives the nutcracker to Havaa as a gift. After Akhmed is taken and Sonja decides to raise Havaa, Havaa opens her suitcase to reveal the long-lost nutcracker.