Chapter 2, The Strange Book Summary and Analysis

Bilquis tries to comfort herself about the eerie feelings she has been having by reading the Koran. She had first read the Koran beginning at age four years, four months and four days—the age when all Muslims begin this training. She had to learn Arabic since that was the only language the Koran is written in and cannot be translated. However, after her strange experience with the mist and her grandson, she begins to read and study the book anew. She walks in her garden with her grandson remembering walking there with her father who had died some years before. Her mother's death followed seven years after her father. Bilquis had been very close to both her parents and felt very alone after they passed away.

The Koran is not giving her the...