Sparks Like Stars: A Novel

Antonia is an important character in the novel, a mentor to and model for Sitara/Aryana. She works at the American embassy in Kabul and is known for being competent, brave, and kind, which is one reason that Shair decides to put Sitara in her care. Sitara recognizes that Antonia is a peacekeeper. She is practical, determined, and compassionate. She has dedicated her life to helping others and has worked in difficult situations. Other people, especially her coworkers, admire her dedication and intelligence and look to her for advice.

Antonia learned to be a self-reliant child because her mother, Tilly, was often away acting. When her father fell ill, Antonia took care of him even though she was still a child herself. Antonia tells young Sitara she is not the type to be married. She is the type to run toward a fire, to want to help other people. She is protective and rational, but she also enjoys adventures. She adopts Aryana as her own because she knows the girl has no one else, and she does her best to provide as a mother while still pursuing her career.

Though she says she is retired in the second half of the novel, Antonia is still active in humanitarian causes. She is present for Aryana and provides emotional support, companionship, and comfort. She does not hesitate to show up when Aryana needs her, including flying back to Afghanistan with her. She supports Aryana’s choices and also provides guidance, especially in counseling Aryana to open her heart. She has been sensitive to Aryana’s grief and wants to see her happy. Antonia is an intelligent, entertaining companion, a source of protection and strength, and a wise guide for Aryana. She feels her own grief over losing her mother, but she comes to terms with it in a healthy fashion.

Shair, who is also called Sham, plays the role of antagonist in the novel, though he is not a conventional villain. He is a soldier who guards the palace of Arg. Sitara describes him as “straight and silent as a candle” (26), disciplined and deferential. His name means “lion” but his two names together, sham-shair, also mean sword. Sitara dwells on his name as a way of trying to figure out how responsible he is for the death of her parents in the palace coup. Shair hides Sitara when he finds her in the palace library because, as he admits later, he is not capable of killing a child. He has a wife and three children of his own, and Sitara’s mother gave him Sitara’s cast-off clothes for his daughter.

When he hides Sitara at his house, Shair is anxious and angry, but he is also anguished about the deaths he witnessed. He took part in the coup, he says later, because he believed the new government would be better for the Afghan people. He was horrified at what happened next. When the wars began, he worked to get his son and the rest of the family out of the country so they would be safe. They moved to New York City, and when his son, Kareem, was killed in a robbery, Shair was devastated.

When he delivers Sitara to Antonia, Shair is doing the best he can to ensure her survival. He seems to be as shocked and grieving as Sitara is when he tells her, “Your Kabul is gone” (73). At the time he tells Sitara he had no choice but to participate, but when they meet again in the second half of the novel, Shair still feels guilty about his role in the coup. He is amazed to recognize Aryana as the girl he rescued, and he respects that she has become a doctor. He also understands why she feels angry and hurt. He tells Aryana, “You would be surprised how many fingers can fit on one trigger” (348), figuratively expressing how many people are behind her family’s deaths. He feels responsible even if he did not fire the bullets that killed them; however, he also gives Aryana the clue that helps her find her parents’ bodies, his parting gift to her, in a way helping her again to find freedom and, this time, reconciliation.

Tilly plays a role in the first half of the novel as a foil to Antonia and to Sitara’s mother, and as the accomplice who smuggles Sitara out of Afghanistan. Tilly is an American woman with green eyes and silver hair, an aging beauty, still with an air of whimsy and free-spiritedness about her. She is Antonia’s mother and has come to visit her daughter in Kabul. Sitara describes her thus: “Her eyes weren’t just green. They were all the colors of an old world, unburied, with flecks of gold and copper. She looked impervious, as if she’d never had a bad day in her life. She moved as if she didn’t know her age” (89). Tilly has come to regret that she was not present for Antonia’s childhood, as she sacrificed her relationships with her husband and daughter for her career. She too is on a journey of reconciliation; she comes to visit Antonia because she has cancer and wants to make peace, if not amends, with her daughter. Tilly has dramatic flair, which amuses Sitara, but she also manages to be serious and determined when the situation warrants. Tilly helps smooth the way for Antonia and Aryana to connect and she is the guide who gets Aryana to America.