What is the author's tone in the novel, The Unpassing?

Gavin narrates the story in two ways. The large majority of the novel is written from the perspective of the ten-year-old self. There is no hindsight, and the narrator’s knowledge is limited to what Gavin knew at the time of the events he is describing. There is also a second tone, where present-day Gavin speaks on his own behalf, to provide context. There are passages with this adult perspective throughout the text, such as the scene at the end of Chapter 2, where Gavin describes being approached by a tourist as an adult returning to Alaska. This is also the tone he adopts for Chapter 20.

Lin’s choice to tell the story from the point of view of a child makes the novel very accessible and easy to read, as the young Gavin uses a simple vocabulary. Because the majority of the novel uses a descriptive, rather than reflective, tone, the narration uses dialogue and shorter sentences, rather than dense description. Gavin's limited perspective has an impact on the amount of information the reader receives. Like many families, Gavin’s family filters the information that reaches the children. For instance, he is never told directly about the court case that will dramatically change the family’s livelihood: he instead gathers pieces of information by seeing his father’s letter and his father's reaction, or receiving small descriptions from Pei-Pei, and leaves them for the reader to piece together.