Chapters 9-10: Mr. Chaya Appears, Last Whispers Summary and Analysis

Shadid, wanting to make his house as traditional as possible, hunts out cement tiles for all the floors. Handmade and old, no two are alike, and an important way to maintain the continuity of Isber's house. He visits three cement merchants, Michel Maalouf, who cannot be bargained down from less than $25 a square meter; a sort of black market dealer named Abu-Ali, who takes the tiles out of houses he demolishes following their ruin from the wars, who sells for $12 a square meter; and Mr. Chaya, who at the age of 66, after a successful career as a money exchanger, taught himself how to pour the tiles, and created a successful business making new tiles for buildings around the Middle East. Despite their newness, he also charges $25 per square meter...