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Part 1: Chapters 1, 2, 3, and 4

• Claude Rawlings is a six-year-old boy who spends every day locked in his basement apartment in New York City right after WWII, while his mother works driving a taxi.

• Claude watches the people go by and is excited to see the motion outside, which means that people are always going somewhere.

• When Claude's mother, Emma, comes home from work, Claude brings her beer, and she goes to bed early, leaving Claude on his own.

• In school Claude is bright, but he avoids attention because he is embarrassed about his thin body and his poverty.

• Emma tells Claude that his father went to war and that he should not ask about his father anymore.

• In his apartment Claude finds an old piano, which opens the door to a whole new world for him.

• When Mr. Weisfeld, owner of a music store, learns that Claude is interested...

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