Sparks Like Stars: A Novel

Antonia becomes Aryana’s guardian and raises her in Tilly’s cottage outside Annapolis. Aryana does not call her Madar but does call her Mom. She thinks of herself as letting go of Sitara, “adding her to the body count of the palace coup” (228), and instead becomes Aryana Shephard. They tell people little about Aryana’s past; she is “the girl who fell from the sky” (229). Slowly Aryana recovers and takes up running, which helps ease her overwhelming feelings. Antonia continues with her job and takes various foreign assignments, bringing Aryana with her around the world. Aryana went to medical school and now works in a New York City hospital as an oncologist, a doctor who treats cancer.

Arayana meets Mom for dinner and hears about her work to vaccinate children in rural Pakistan. Tilly died at the airport when they landed 30 years ago; she had developed meningitis from the skull fracture she sustained in the accident. Aryana is a competent doctor and has the unique ability to smell disease. She still feels guilty about Tilly’s death, but Antonia reassures her. Aryana begged Antonia to get Shawna and Gabriel out of Janet and Everett’s house, which she did, but Aryana does not know where they ended up.