So.... Nicky?

SPOILERS
So well done. I was so deeply invested in all the story people, especially Dr. Aziz, that when he finds himself in great trouble (at end of Part One), I could not continue reading. I even went to Wikipedia to read the synopsis to make sure he survived, but I still couldn't make myself go on with the story. Maybe I just did not want to be so intimate with another 'horrors of colonialism' story, though I've read plenty of others, fiction and non-fiction. I know the pattern, I see it in my imagination already playing out, and it pains me. Could readers feel the same about the hard issues I write about?