Throughout the novel, the protagonists struggle with the need to redeem themselves for their mistakes. Both Inès and Céline make toxic, damaging choices that create reverberating effects for everyone they love. Not coincidentally, both women survive to the very end of the novel (although each believes the other one has died), in order to fully explore their lifelong journey to forgiveness.

For Céline, her cataclysmic choice comes when she first kisses Michel and allows herself to embrace her feelings for him, rather than burying them and trying to move forward in her marriage. This leads to an intense physical and emotional affair, which becomes more and more entrenched and essential for Céline’s well-being. Even though she believes what she’s doing is objectively wrong, she can’t bring herself to believe that her choice is wrong for her. This creates a dichotomy between right and wrong that makes her journey toward forgiving herself even more complex. Her affair indirectly leads to Michel’s death, the perceived death of their son, and her imprisonment in Auschwitz. Much later, she reflects to Olivia, “No, the fault was mine. But I couldn’t have done it any differently.