Summary

When the boy’s parents started fighting, the boy went to live with Grandmother. The boy loved being with Grandmother. When he was nine, “she sold her wedding gold” to buy him a camera (44). After three years, his mother got upset he “would not go home” (44).

Noor taught English four days a week. Her students often whispered about her “conspiratorially in Arabic” (45). Sometimes she complained to the boy. He told her stories about his own struggles.

When the boy was 16, his mother sold the house he and Grandmother “were living in” without telling them (47). Grandmother was distressed. She was ashamed to live with her daughter-in-law. She had “lived independently for forty years” (47).

The boy gave many lessons about life in Cairo. Everything about the city tired her. People still did not believe she was Egyptian.

When the boy was 11, he and...