Summary

Chapter 1 opens with the narrator surveying the beached carnage from a shipwreck. The protagonist Amir Utu lies unconscious on the beach while tourists, locals, and journalists gather to gawk at the violence. Six young police officers attempt to string tarps up between the onlookers and the dead bodies. Workers in hazmat suits walk through the dead kicking at them for signs of life as they “pocket anything that sparkles” (6).

A wave brings Amir back to consciousness, and as he hears the workers in containment suits approaching, he stands up. Although he does not understand the language being spoken, Amir knows “he is being ordered not to move” (7). “He runs.” (7).

In Chapter 2, the Utu family fled their war-torn city of Homs, Syria, and sought safety in Damascus. Quiet Uncle’s meekness caused Amir to distrust whether he could care for the family, or even...