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This test consists of 5 short answer questions, 10 short essay questions, and 1 (of 3) essay topics.

Short Answer Questions

1. What kind of plant does Lubna encourage Mina to buy in Chicago?

2. Why does Emma ask the two journalists to leave in Part III?

3. Who does Rasheed help immigrate to Europe in the chapter titled "But How Butch Are You"?

4. What anomaly does Mina observe in the tent of the refugee camp at Sumaiya's bedside table in Part IV?

5. Where does the unnamed writer find out that not a single refugee wants to immigrate?

Short Essay Questions

1. What particular topic does Mina remember Francine having written about in 2009?

2. What does Mina really think of the man who says he worked for a jewler?

3. What affliction does one woman tell Mina she has in Part IV that Mina can find no physical cause for?

4. Who is Sumaiya most worried about in her family for after she dies?

5. In Part IV, what does Mina realize about the economic situations of the refugees she sees in the camps?

6. Why does Mazen get so mad at the western journalists' questioning of Sammy and Samaiya?

7. What can Mina not help thinking about women from Deir-ez-Zor?

8. What is the relationship between Sammy and Sumaiya like?

9. What is the jewel in the dream house the writer's father built in Lebanon?

10. What personal story of loss does Mina share with Asma in Part IV?

Essay Topics

Write an essay for ONE of the following topics:

Essay Topic 1

Why is Mina's relationship with her brother Mazen so important to her, and to both of them? What specific details does Alameddine reveal to the reader about the siblings' relationship to help readers understand its centrality to Mina's character? Write an essay explaining your answers.

Essay Topic 2

What complications about the motivations and goals of the aid workers on Lesbos does Alameddine reveal throughout the novel? What are some of the different and opposing perspectives different characters, including Emma, Rasheed, and Mina take about the aid workers? Write an essay explaining your answers, citing specific references to the text to help support your conclusions.

Essay Topic 3

How does Mina's conversation with the unnamed writer in the last chapter - about the unnamed writer's assertion that he can never write another word about refugees, and his urging for Mina to write her own story on the subject instead - affect the reader's perspective about the entire book at its very end? Write an essay explaining your answers, citing specific references to the text to help support your conclusions.

(see the answer keys)

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