Chapters 10 through 12 Summary and Analysis

Chapter 10: Of Mosquitoes and Men

Francois told Firoozeh about his Greek grandfather dying in Baghdad from an infection. He had gone there to set up a bread factory. According to Muslim laws, he was buried immediately. Francois' grandmother, Octavie had him dug up and buried him in a Catholic ceremony. Living in the Congo for a while, Octavie had a pet baby buffalo but gave it to a zoo when it got to large to manage. On the train ride to the zoo, somebody must have gotten hungry. Word got back to Octavie that her pet had been slaughtered and made into a stew.

When Francois and Firoozeh decided to get married, Francois wanted to honeymoon in India. Firoozeh told him she had had enough of bad plumbing, unbearable heat, and massive amounts of mosquitoes in Iran and India...