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Prologue, Interruption

The following version of this book was used to create this Lesson Plan: Jemison, N.K. The City We Became. Orbit Books, 2020. Hardback.

•The novel begins with an unnamed narrator, who stands yelling on the roof of a building in New York City at dawn.

• The scene shifts to later that same morning.

• The narrator meets a man named Paulo in a cafe.

• The reader knows nothing about either Paulo or the narrator at this point.

• Indeed, the narrator himself does not seem to know much about himself or his strange friend. Not until the book's end does the reader begin to piece together what happens in the Prologue.

• Paulo buys him breakfast and encourages him to listen to the city. The narrator does not have any idea what he means, and neither does the reader.

• At night, with no place to sleep, the narrator spends...

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