Having finished his novel, Kien is apparently capable of finally moving on, at least in a literal sense. Instead of staying in Hanoi and continuing to live in the same building he occupied as a child, he sets out in search of a new life—or, at least, this is what readers are left to think. Regardless of where he goes, the fact remains that he has finally moved on from his old life in Hanoi, suggesting that writing the novel was a necessary step he had to take in order to process his trauma and leave behind his past.