Summary

This chapter begins with a brief commentary from the narration, written in a long and breathless single sentence, on how Deven got caught up and felt spun around by the speedy chain of events that followed.

The narration then shifts focus onto the watchful arrival of Murad at the apartment where the interview is to take place, an apartment on the top floor of a brothel. The narration then shifts again into the past with descriptions of how Deven himself arrived there after giving an envelope thick with money to Nur’s senior wife, intended to pay for Nur’s participation. As the narration returns to the conversation with Murad, Deven loses his temper and tells the impatient Murad that a poet cannot be rushed. Murad is surprised and admiring of Deven’s show of spirit, while Deven himself is excited at the prospect...