Apa wanted her to care, and it wasn’t that she didn’t. But how could she care about the war apart from what was happening in front of her? And how could she live if she only focused on the death and fear and hunger? It was exhausting to constantly remember she and her family could die in any number of terrible ways at any given moment. When once Suchi told Apa she was sick of hearing about politics, his voice had grown low with disappointment. “I’ve shielded you from too much,” he said. “You haven’t known real suffering. Most people don’t have the luxury of turning their face from this.”
