Chapter 11 Summary

Amal cannot sleep after a night out on the town with Isabel. She thinks about the train of events set off by her grandmother's first meeting with Anna. Layla and radical lawyer-husband Husni, have one son, Ahmad, who marries a Palestinian and brings his wife and son 'Omar, home to Egypt after Israeli independence strips them of their lands. 'Omar immigrates to New York, where he achieves fame as a musician. Amal is born in Egypt, lives with her mother during her widowhood, and goes abroad after her mother's death. Egypt draws her back, but she finds it changed. She enlists Isabel to search for bits of lost Cairo. At the Mu'allaqah, explanation of the black pillar has become politically correct, and they discover the hieroglyph for water carved into the baptismal font. They eat, shop, and join in celebrating a wedding they...