The Wasted Vigil by Nadeem Aslam paints for readers a myriad of characters, all hailing from different regions of the world with their own unique backstories and personalities. A Russian woman named Lara begins the novel appearing in Afghanistan looking for her brother lost during the Soviet invasion of Afghanistan. During her travels, she resides with Marcus, a widowed British man who has been living in Afghanistan, refusing to leave since his Afghan wife, Qatrina’s, death. Another prominent western character is the CIA operative David, an American, who has befriended Marcus after falling in love with his now missing daughter. However, for a novel so largely based around Afghanistan, its culture, and its people, its representation of Afghans…show more content… Marcus has had his own hand amputated by his wife, David lives with the fact that the love of his life has been murdered and her son kidnapped, and Lara has gone through the extraordinary loss of her mother, brother, and husband. But these characters are all revealed as level-headed. The three characters, with ease, can speak to each other casually and end the day with a glass of wine, yet reading through any flashbacks involving Qatrina or Casa’s narrative shows dangerous boldness and disillusion. Casa regularly, and seemingly uncontrollably, voices thoughts that many would keep private, such as saying “We’ll destroy America the way the Soviet Union was destroyed” while residing in a house containing both an American and Russian (Aslam 235). His thoughts also upturn and change instantly, for instance, “Two hours ago he himself was thinking of taking the car, but the fact now is that if he saw someone trying to steal it he would do his best to prevent the theft” (Aslam 161). Lara, David, and Marcus’ thought processes seem relatively steady, with certain goals in mind, but one can never be sure what Casa is feeling or attempting to accomplish at any given
