NW

The fifth and final part of NW is titled “Visitation,” just like its first part, yet the opening and closing of the novel are linked to each other by more than just their titles. The disparate strands of the novel are brought together: While the first part named the victim of the stabbing as Felix, the final part names the probable murderer as Nathan, thanks to the action of Natalie and Leah. 

While Natalie has been keeping her marital and existential woes hidden up to this point in the novel, they are now unavoidably obvious. Leah and Michel’s conflicting domestic ambitions also reemerge, this time openly. When Michel discovers the birth control pills Leah has secretly been taking, he at first thinks that they belong to Natalie (as they have her name on their package, since Leah had been stealing them from Natalie). Given his ambition to start a family, he is distraught at this discovery. Nevertheless, Michel begs Natalie to come to their home, signifying her importance for Leah. Ironically, Leah only stirs when she sees Natalie with her kids, albeit with the sarcastic statement, “You look like the fucking Madonna” (399).

Lost in their respective domestic and existential breakdowns, the two long-term friends find each other again. Despite all of the changes each has gone through, despite their diverging life paths, and despite their fundamental differences of background, identity, and perspective on life, they continue to relate to one another. In this moment of high drama, they are linked in the fact that each has essentially done something extreme to her husband—one hiding an abortion and lying about trying to become pregnant, the other hiding a secret life of affairs. 

Their connection in the moment grows into something else. Most immediately, in their conversation in Leah’s yard, they verbalize the questions about who they are, and what they live for, that each has been grappling with internally throughout the novel. Though their answers to the questions are tenuous, the very act of stating them reawakens a sense of life within each of them. As Leah begins to talk to Michel again, Natalie realizes that she longs to reconnect with Frank. 

The two also connect over the incident of Felix’s murder. When Natalie tells Leah she knows something about what happened, and they decide to do something about it, they act together. When the novel closes by stating, “Natalie dialed it. It was Keisha who did the talking” (401), this symbolizes Keisha’s peeling back the layers of time and change to face her past with assurance and confidence, blending the present with the past instead of avoiding it.

The close of NW also brings attention back to one of its core themes—the relationship between the geography of northwest London and the behavior of the residents who live within it. Throughout the novel, Natalie, Leah, and others have come into conflict with the spaces and life of NW, attempting to leave it physically (for education, or better housing), socio-economically (by getting ahead in life or climbing the corporate ladder), or mentally-spiritually (through drug use, affairs, or mental breakdowns). The threats surrounding personal and domestic life—crime, violence, racism, existential crisis—are made clear in the novel. However, by choosing to tip off the police about Nathan Bogle’s involvement in the murder of Felix Cooper, Natalie and Leah resolve to do something about at least one of these threats. By returning energy and effort to the world of northwest London, Natalie and Leah resolve themselves to accept it as a home of sorts, yet without ignoring or erasing all the shortcomings, crises, confusion, and chaos that it contains.