City of Orphans

Trace Maks’s coming-of-age journey. What forces contribute to his development, and which threaten to halt it?

How does the use of an omniscient narrator affect the story? How would it change the tone if the author has used first-person narration from Maks’s point of view?

How does the author balance the naturalistic and deterministic tone of the story with hope and optimism through its child characters?