Chapter 23- Epilogue: Oh Laila, My Jedeida Summary and Analysis

The mounting tensions turn people thoughts to past violence: Najib, Abu Salim, and his brother appear to admire the house, and relate stories of the Israeli collaborator, Albert Haddad, who lived in the house before the occupation. He had a network of 300 informers and a gun with a silencer for assassinations. He himself escaped assassination in 1995 and is still alive somewhere.

Shadid turns back to the past, looking at a portrait of Bahija in her 90's, back curved with osteoporosis. She started getting senile at the very end of her life, but kept the house almost until her death in 1965. Around the same time, Raeefa is diagnosed with stomach cancer at the age of 57. She has experienced too much tragedy already and has too much family now, so she...