Boy Swallows Universe: Boy Conquers Moon Summary & Analysis

The world feels simultaneously too small and too big when Eli wakes up in the middle of the night. It’s a full moon tonight, and Eli stands in the living room window and stares at it. He imagines Lyle in Darra. Eli misses Lyle. He realizes he gave up on Lyle because he was scared and angry at him for getting involved with Tytus Broz. Eli cut Lyle and Tytus out of his mind, just like the ibis might have cut its own leg off when it got tangled in fishing line.

Eli goes outside and starts to fill a moon pool in the street. Moments later, August appears. August assures Eli he doesn’t need to worry; everything is going to be okay. He also confirms that tomorrow will be the most meaningful day of Eli’s life. Eli admits he feels out of control, like he’s in the car and can’t stop it from crashing into the dam. August asks if that’s what Eli sees in the pool. Eli sees nothing, but August says he sees “tomorrow.” Annoyed, Eli snaps that August’s cryptically vague insights into the future are pretty useless—all Eli wants to know is whether Tytus Broz is going to recognize him tomorrow.

When August asks if Eli called the police, Eli details how they wouldn’t listen because Eli wouldn’t give his name. But he told the officer to investigate Iwan Krol, who works for Tytus Broz and runs a llama farm. August shrugs; the police probably don’t care if the local criminals are killing each other. Eli says they have to care now that Bevan Penn is missing. August or Eli could’ve ended up like Bevan, and Slim always talked about “things always coming back around again.” August agrees that he and Eli always come back, but Eli tells him to stop with the whole coming back nonsense. The voices they heard on the red telephone were just in their head. Then, August tells Eli to talk to Caitlyn Spies, just before Mum appears and hisses at the boys to go to bed. 

The next morning, Eli sits across from Dad and reads the front-page story in The Courier-Mail. The story, by Dave and Caitlyn, is about Glenn Penn and his “misspent youth.” As expected, Glenn’s dad was abusive. But Eli can tell Caitlyn wrote most of it, because the writing is compassionate. She interviewed several of Bevan’s teachers who said the kid is a quiet, geeky boy. Mum interrupts Eli’s reading to ask what he’s wearing later. When he says he’s wearing his work clothes, Mum says he looks like a child molester—but Eli says he doesn’t have time to change because he has a busy day. When Mum bursts into tears, Eli says he’ll borrow a nice jacket from work.

At 2:15, the public relations person from Queensland Champions calls Eli and asks why he isn’t interviewing Tytus Broz yet. She asks what questions Eli is going to ask him. Eli thinks he’ll ask about his finger and Lyle, but gives rote answers to the woman. He hangs up when Brian marches over to tell Eli to hurry up. Brian compliments what Eli is currently writing and brushes Eli off when Eli says he has a good, but difficult, story to tell about Tytus Broz.

As Eli waits for a taxi outside the office, he studies his reflection and wonders if he looks different enough from his 13-year-old self. Tytus Broz will definitely notice the missing finger, and Iwan Krol will slice Eli up. It breaks Eli’s reverie when Caitlyn Spies stops her car in front of him, tells him to get in, and then passes him a folder containing files and a picture of Iwan Krol. She tells Eli to share everything. It takes Eli 27 minutes to tell her the entire story. Caitlyn then says that it all fits. She asked an old friend who’s now a police officer for help, and he’s been to Iwan’s llama farm five times to look for missing persons. He told her to leave Iwan alone. Caitlyn is enraged, since there’s a kid missing now.

Caitlyn stops her car at Tytus Broz’s gate, and someone buzzes them in. The house is white, and it sits on a vast manicured lawn. Once Caitlyn parks, she pulls a camera with a faulty flash out of the trunk so she can pose as the photographer. As Eli and Caitlyn wait for someone to answer the doorbell, Eli realizes he’s terrified. The house doesn’t match the landscape—something is off about this place. A maid opens the door, but Hanna Broz is behind the maid and greets Eli and Caitlyn. She’s older now, and she doesn’t recognize Eli. Her prosthetic hands look disturbingly real. She invites them to follow her.

When Caitlyn compliments the artwork in the house, Hanna notes that Tytus hasn’t always lived like this—he started in Australia at the Wacol immigration camp. Eli says he’s not familiar, since he’s from Bracken Ridge. Leading them on, Hanna says that Tytus isn’t as well or alert as he used to be. She shows Eli and Caitlyn into a room lined with bookshelves and filled with plush carpets and chairs. Tytus Broz sits at a writing desk in front of a glass wall looking out onto the landscaping. Hanna calls to Tytus twice, but he finally looks up and invites Eli and Caitlyn closer. He taps a box on his desk excitedly.

Keeping his right hand hidden in his pocket, Eli asks Tytus if he can record the conversation and then interviews Tytus. Tytus explains how, when Hanna was born, he was inspired to make sure no other babies born without arms, like her, had to suffer. Feeling sick, Eli asks Tytus if he’s a good man—and then snaps back to himself and asks what advice Tytus would give to others. Tytus says people should change the world and not ask permission. Then, he says he has a surprise and invites Caitlyn to open the box. Inside is a prosthetic hand that looks real. Somehow, it seems sinister—as though Eli’s missing finger somehow built it.

Tytus Broz explains that this prototype allows amputees to control it with electric currents. It’ll change the world and create “Life without limits.” Then, he says he’s seen the future and in it, kids like Hanna will control their prosthetic limbs directly from their brains. Just then, a blue bird outside the window flies straight for the glass, hits it four times, and falls to the ground. Eli gets up, opens the glass door, and gently picks up the bird. Caitlyn follows and asks if it’s dead, and what kind of bird it is. Caitlyn remembers—it’s a wren. Suddenly, the “dead blue wren” returns to life. It flies across to the yard to a concrete bunker. Eli is so busy watching that he doesn’t notice Tytus noticing his missing finger until it’s too late.

After getting a quick photograph of Tytus Broz that blinds him with the faulty flash, Caitlyn and Eli rush to the car and drive away. Caitlyn says that there’s something horrible going on, and Tytus is the most disturbing person she’s ever met. Eli thinks of Lyle and says he has to go back. He refuses to say why until Caitlyn says she already thinks Eli is “crazy,” but in a good way. Then, Eli tells Caitlyn about August writing “your end is a dead blue wren” on that day that Slim taught Eli to drive, and how August told the phrase to Tytus. It must mean that Tytus is reaching the end. Caitlyn points out that the wren wasn’t dead, but Eli says it came back, just like he and August do.

Eli admits that he never really believed that August was special, but since he met Caitlyn, he’s started believing in things. Caitlyn says it’s sweet how Eli looks at her, but Eli assures her she doesn’t have to say that he’s too young. As she turns the car around, Caitlyn says she wasn’t going to say that. But they have to go back to the bunker. Caitlyn parks away from the gate and she and Eli watch as a line of cars and then a Mercedes leave the house. She asks Eli to grab her flashlight (which is absurdly tiny) and then leads Eli in climbing a tree over the fence.

Once they’re over, Caitlyn leads Eli around the house to the bunker. Its door is locked. Eli suggests Caitlyn go back while they’re only trespassing—he’s going to move on to breaking and entering. Eli finds an axe in a nearby garden shed. Before he can bring it down on the door, Caitlyn asks if the dead blue wren’s end actually refers to Eli’s end, and not Tytus Broz’s. Eli is terrified, but he chops the door open anyway. It reveals a concrete staircase leading into the ground. As Caitlyn and Eli reach the bottom of it, it starts to smell like a hospital.

With Caitlyn’s flashlight, she and Eli notice two doors directly across from each other, and then two more matching doors further down. At the end of the hallway is one more door. They’re all locked. Eli breaks through the first door with the axe. The room is garage-sized and full of workbenches, power tools, and artificial limbs. In the room across the way, Caitlyn’s flashlight illuminates three workbenches surrounding an operating table. On the table is a headless body made of artificial limbs. Terrified, Eli opens the third door. Inside are glass specimen jars, presumably with animals in them. There’s another artificial body on the table. But then Caitlyn pulls out the camera and snaps pictures. The flash reveals that the jars are filled with human limbs—and the body on the table is real, composed of epoxied human body parts. The head is Regina Penn’s.

Eli is too shocked to stop, even when Caitlyn vomits and asks him to stop. Eli opens the fourth door. Inside are more workbenches with medical tools, and shelves holding smaller jars. Eli studies the labels—and finds his lucky finger. Caitlyn says they have to get out as Eli points her flashlight up. On the top shelf are the preserved heads of “small-time criminals.” Seeing one face, Eli dumps out a black bag and reaches for the head. He needs it “For the end of Tytus Broz.”

Axe and black bag in hand, Eli says they have to open the last door in case Bevan is there. As Eli hacks into the door, he tells Slim that this is his chance to do what’s right, not what’s easy. Lyle, Dad, and August would do this, and those men are helping Eli swing the axe. When the door swings open, Caitlyn’s flashlight finds Bevan. The boy is alive and holding a red telephone to his ear. Bevan holds the phone out to Eli, and Eli takes it. The man on the phone says he’s August, and Eli should stop talking—Caitlyn thinks he's “crazy” enough. August asks if Eli still has the axe. He’s going to need it: Iwan Krol is coming.

Eli and Caitlyn listen to Iwan’s flip flops as he traces their steps through the bunker. Finally, Iwan reaches the door to the end room and says there’s only one way out. He approaches Eli and Caitlyn, who are in front of Bevan and the axe. At Eli’s signal, Caitlyn snaps the camera, blinding Iwan with the flash, and Eli takes the axe from Bevan. He’s blinded by the flash too, so instead of sinking it into Iwan’s torso, Eli chops off half of Iwan’s foot. Eli leads Caitlyn and Bevan out of the bunker at a run.

Not long after, Caitlyn reaches Brisbane City Hall. Eli thinks she looks traumatized. There’s nowhere to park, so Caitlyn parks in the middle of the square. When a security guard runs up and tells her to move, she asks him to call the police. She has Bevan Penn in her car. Caitlyn wishes Eli luck as Eli slips out of the car with the black bag. He checks in with a lady at a desk and then creeps down the center aisle. He finds Mum and Dad and joins them just as August steps onstage to accept his award.

Once August walks off the stage, Eli ignores Mum and hurries backstage, remembering Slim’s advice to be casual and confident. Eli finds August and says he found “him.” He shows August the contents of the bag. August says nothing but leads Eli to a greenroom where there’s a tray with a box on it. Inside is Tytus Broz’s prototype hand. August motions for the bag. Then, he and Eli slip out of the backstage area just as Tytus seems to notice Eli. When the MC starts to announce the final award, Eli reaches Mum. He says she should leave—she doesn’t want to see the final award. She follows when the MC announces Tytus Broz’s name.

Just as Eli, August, Mum, and Dad reach the entry doors, they notice two police cars by Caitlyn’s. Caitlyn leads officers in and points through the auditorium to Tytus Broz, onstage and accepting his award. She then joins Eli’s family. Eli introduces her to his parents and August, and then Caitlyn turns back toward the auditorium. Tytus Broz announces that he has a surprise. Eli can’t see the stage, but he imagines the view from his seat in the auditorium. People gasp in horror, and a woman starts sobbing. Mum asks Eli what’s going on. Eli says he found “him” as police officers surround Tytus. Tytus stares with confusion at the head of “the first man [Eli] ever loved.”

Eli reminds Slim to do your time before it does you. Time seems to slow as Eli watches the police lights and as August nods to Eli. August ushers Mum and Dad away so Eli can have a moment with Caitlyn. She asks if he was really talking to someone on the red telephone. Eli asks what she thinks, but she doesn’t answer. She asks if she can drive Eli to the police station. When Eli says his parents will, she says his parents seem surprisingly normal. Then, Caitlyn says Brian will want her to write about this tomorrow—and maybe they can share the byline. She heads back toward the police. Eli looks around. He feels like he can see August writing “your end is a dead blue wren.”

As Eli turns for the exit, he notices too late that Iwan Krol is standing in front of him. Iwan stabs Eli in the belly. Eli knows Iwan is going to stab him again—so through the pain, Eli staggers away. The police haven’t noticed him yet. Eli holds his belly and moves up the stairs. Iwan is limping—he clearly bandaged his foot and stuffed it into a dress shoe—but he follows Eli slowly. Eli gets a man’s attention, and the man steps in front of Iwan. But Iwan stabs the man and a woman screams. Eli continues to stagger up the stairs. He recognizes where he is: he’s on the way up to the clock tower, where Slim took him years ago.

Eli can’t breathe, but he finds the secret staircase and starts to climb. He tells Slim he’ll do this until he dies. But Eli doesn’t want to die. He wants to ask more questions of Mum, Dad, August, and Caitlyn. Eli starts moving again when he hears Iwan enter the stairwell below him. He tells Slim he’s ready to die as he reaches the clock tower. Standing inside the clock tower on the platform, Eli leans against the north clock face. Hearing Iwan enter the engine room, Eli realizes he isn’t afraid. He’s furious. Eli can’t move. Iwan inspects Eli’s body, and Eli wants to ask Iwan if he thinks he’s a good man. Just as Iwan prepares to slit Eli’s throat, officers burst through the door.

Gunshots ring out, but Iwan pulls Eli to his feet and puts the knife to Eli’s throat. As Iwan pushes Eli forward, Eli realizes he has something cylindrical and glass in his pocket. Time seems to stop—until the clock starts to strike nine, a deafening sound. Eli brings the specimen jar holding his lucky finger down on Iwan’s head. He doesn’t see if the officers shoot Iwan, he just sees August. August whispers that Eli is going to be okay. Just before Eli passes out, he scribbles “Boy swallows universe” in the air.