I Am Pilgrim

Fiction | Novel | Adult | Published in 2013

A modern alternative to SparkNotes and CliffsNotes, SuperSummary offers high-quality Study Guides with detailed chapter summaries and analysis of major themes, characters, and more.

Download PDF

Part 4, Chapters 40-52Chapter Summaries & Analyses

Part 4, Chapters 40-52 Summary

Murdoch explains that he decided the best interrogation strategy would be rapid-fire questions to keep his adversary off balance and uncertain of his goals. Bradley tells Murdoch later that he felt as though he were “dying on [his] feet” (570). Amid a barrage of random biographical data, he finally learns the details of the smallpox plot.

The interrogation ends when Cumali tells Murdoch that Nikolaides and his assistants are returning. He persuades her to help him escape by firing on the boats. He tells al-Nassouri that his bond with his son was “the only weapon [he] had” (579).

Losing strength as Cumali helps him to the boat, Murdoch can barely say his code name in time to reach the president and inform him of the details. Murdoch, distantly, is aware that Whisperer sounds concerned for him. He rejects a helicopter rescue, a signal that he either assumes he is dying or refuses to return to his life of espionage.

As he approaches the boat Cumali has found for him, Murdoch hears gunfire and realizes al-Nassouri has died by suicide, using one of the guns he left behind. Murdoch suspects he left the weapon as a subconscious gesture of respect. Murdoch tells Cumali to profess her innocence for the sake of the boy.

Murdoch sails for a place he has been before: the Australian doctor’s house he visited the night of his friend Mack’s death. Murdoch survives the doctor’s ministrations. When he hears the international news discussing the recall of flu vaccines due to contamination, he knows all will be well.

A covert agent brings Murdoch a package of correspondence, including a letter from the president. The doctor is shocked to see Murdoch ignore this in favor of a letter from Ben Bradley, freed from Turkish prison by the president. He reports that Ingrid and Cameron are now free, thanks to a massive bribe. The other letter is an effusive testimony from Battleboi thanking him for his help and promising to always honor the day Murdoch got him out of prison.

Murdoch goes on a series of lengthy walks to help his recovery. On one of them, he finds a large venerable sailing boat available. He purchases and renovates it, certain he is destined for it when he learns the name. The craft is called Nomad, one of the etymologies of the alias Murdoch gave al-Nassouri (602).

On one of his stops for fuel, Murdoch finds a recent newspaper, which reports Cameron’s recent death, not long after her marriage to Ingrid. He realizes Ingrid’s true perfect crime was her vengeance on the woman who abandoned her.

As he sails into the night, Murdoch imagines Bill Murdoch and his mother accompanying him. He realizes his vision was “another kind of death. I was bidding all the ghosts of my past goodbye” (606). He knows that someday soon he will see Battleboi again and think of the Bible verse his letter quoted: “He is risen” (606).

Part 4, Chapters 40-52 Analysis

As the narrative ends, Murdoch has his final triumph as an expert in the world of espionage. He shocks al-Nassouri with the depth of his knowledge about his life, securing useless information along with vital details, using his observation of behavior to be certain when an answer is false or of crucial importance. That he almost bids his adversary an empathetic farewell underlines the thematic link between them: Both occupy worlds and lives others do not understand, both are haunted by family bonds and losses, and both have medical training but embarked on different lives. Murdoch extends al-Nassouri a kind of mercy in letting him die by suicide rather than face arrest and interrogation. Murdoch’s desperate effort to get the truth to Whisperer and his refusal of a helicopter extraction may be read as heroic or as self-preservation: Perhaps he assumes he will die and wants no one to risk rescuing him, or perhaps he wants only to assure himself that what remains of his life will be his own, as a return to Washington would prevent any real retirement.

Murdoch also begins the process of facing his past and making amends. He ensures that Cumali and the child will be safe and intentionally returns to the doctor he met the night of Mack’s death, as if he senses that a return to his past is the key to what remains of his life. Battleboi’s letter confirms that to some, he is exactly the savior figure he never expected to be. The news from Bradley, in contrast, suggests that settling some aspects of the past is out of his control: Cameron’s wealth and Ingrid’s cunning help them both evade final consequences.

Murdoch’s decision to set sail, certain that the boat called Nomad is a sign he is on the right path, links his future to his final case, a kind of homage to his dead adversary and a physical merging of their lives and identities. He realizes that his vision was the key to his salvation, not his doom, and imagines a reunion not with his work but with one of those whose lives he saved. His epic struggle to repeat his code name—pilgrim, a kind of wanderer not dissimilar to a nomad—is contrasted with his ease at sea and his contemplation of a warm reunion with Battleboi. Though his ultimate journey is unknown, the reader is left confident that Murdoch is at rest.