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1-Page Summary of Every Day

Overall Summary

Every Day is a book about a young man named A. Every day, he wakes up in the body of someone else and stays there for forty-one days. He has his own thoughts and feelings, but often senses what the person he’s inhabiting would be thinking or feeling. Their age is always sixteen years old, which matches A’s age throughout the novel.

In the book “A Thousand Splendid Suns,” by Khaled Hosseini, a young boy named Amir grows up in Kabul. His mother is an educated woman who wants her son to have opportunities she never had. When Amir’s father dies, he marries his wife’s sister for protection and security. The marriage doesn’t work out because the two women don’t get along well with one another, so they take turns living in their own houses. One day at school, when Amir is 13 years old, he meets this girl named Sohrab’s mom (Sohrab being a friend of his). He falls deeply in love with her but decides not to tell anyone about it because he feels like that would be inappropriate since she has a husband and kids of her own; however, after a while of keeping it secret from everyone else except for Sohrab’s mom (she knows), things change between them…

Rhiannon eventually falls in love with A, even though she knows he can’t be there for her all the time. She and A break up with their respective boyfriends because they’re not working out. As Rhiannon and A spend more time together, they fall deeper in love. However, it becomes clear that things won’t work out between them because Rhiannon needs someone who will always be around to support her; otherwise, she’ll end up getting hurt again.

A then searches for someone else who knows about him. He finds Nathan, the person he possessed while at a party to find Rhiannon. Nathan has been trying to contact A ever since he woke up from his possession. It seems that most of the people whom A had inhabited did not know they were possessed by him, but somehow Nathan figured out that A was in his body and sent emails demanding answers. When they meet, Nathan also believes him and wants further proof before trusting him completely; therefore, he asks them to meet again tomorrow.

The next day, Nathan is not alone. The ominous Reverend Poole, who has been giving Nathan advice, is there. Poole traps A, demanding to know his story. It becomes clear to A that Poole is actually like A; in fact he’s another spirit like him but unlike him can control the amount of time he spends in a body and therefore can stay longer than a day or two without having to move on.

A is fascinated by the idea of a life that extends beyond 24 hours. However, he also understands the ethical consequences of taking another person’s life to prolong his own. Therefore, in the end, A rejects Poole’s offer because he knows it would be wrong to take another’s life for his own benefit.

When A wakes up as Alexander Lin, he knows exactly what to do. He is a guy who is very similar to A and they both admire each other for their kind and artistic spirit. Both of them are sad but accepting that there’s no other way because they have been forced into this situation by Nathan. They decide to spend one last night together before separating permanently. The next day, A runs away from Poole, Nathan, and Rhiannon toward the rest of his days without having any regrets about the past or being afraid of the future

Chapter 1: “Day 5994”

On A’s 5994th day, he wakes up in the body of a sixteen-year-old named Justin. To figure out who his person is and what he needs to know about him for the day, A accesses his mind. He learns that Justin is rude to his parents, listens to obnoxious music on the radio, and smokes cigarettes.