"A Beginning" Summary

In April 1997, while in Cairo, Amal al-Ghamrawi recalls a terrifying dream of standing in a house she last visited ten years ago. Now a museum, it once belonged to a great-uncle, Sharif al-Baroudi, and is where her father grew up. On the suggestion of Amal's brother, an American, Isabel Parkman, has brought over a leather trunk she found in New York. It had belonged to Isabel's great-grandmother, Anna Winterbourne, and Isabel, who knows no Arabic, is anxious to learn if it will illuminate her own life's history. While in Egypt, Isabel is documenting how Egyptians view the approaching millennium.

"A Beginning" Analysis

"A Beginning" establishes how two women late in the 20th Century become involved in the story of one's great-grandmother, contained in an ancient chest, filled with letters, journals, and memorabilia. Note that Amal expects the American Isabel...