Summary

Nineteen – As Faoud passes through Sorano, a town near the Codringtons’ Italian house, he is reminded of Aleppo, in Syria: “houses carved out of the rock, thousands of years compressed into simple walls and arches and secret doors. But the Syrian stones he would never see again” (217), narration revealing that he had studied music in Aleppo for several years. He then arrives at the house, eventually navigates all the locks, and goes in, narration revealing that it is a renovated convent. Faoud discovers that there is no food in the house and becomes angry, realizing that the Codringtons had taken all their unused food with them: “the other side of the rich was their hidden and repulsive frugality” (218). Faoud has a long bath, again trying to cleanse and purify himself, and then prepares to sleep, recalling his relatively happy childhood with his...