It's a cycle. There is a sense of resolution in the book but also great loss. I think things move at a glacial pace. Things are changing, though, all over the world. I thought things could change quickly, and now I can see that they don't, that it takes a lifetime of commitment and working in small increments.
Commitment can be deadly, though.
One of your characters is killed by a guerrilla who probably had the same beliefs and values as his victim. I wanted to show the randomness of how people die there. But once you start putting guns in the hands of people, that doesn't matter. It's really Marta, the orphan girl, who effects the healing of Kate. Before that there's a real feeling of Kate's isolation.