Summary

Part 1, Chapter 5 – Marina heads to work on a Saturday, upset she is working on a Saturday, and annoyed she has to pick up Pasha from a party on the way home. Marina works as a housecleaner, and goes to clean the house of Shmulka and her husband, Charna, who have six kids and pay by the hour.

Meanwhile, Pasha meets Renata Ostraya at the party. Pasha is to be the guest of honor, and is asked to recite a few poems. He notices Misha talking to a group of writers and poets, one of them being a young, attractive woman. Misha later explains the woman is Lilya, who translates ancient Bulgarian philosophers, and her father is an experimental filmmaker, her mother a puppeteer, and Lilya’s younger sister, Elza, is even more beautiful than Lilya. After Pasha’s recitation, he is...