Summary

In Part III, Chapter 14, Jonas moved through New York as if he were giving his deceased father a tour. He told him about the streets and trains. Eventually arriving at the academy, he told Yosef how much he loved working there, feeling this imagined dialogue the best conversation they had ever had.

When his students arrived, Jonas told them his earlier absence was due to his father's death. He then found himself lapsing into Yosef’s history, fabricating more and more details as he continued. Yosef, he said, grew up in Ethiopia, where he was an engineer. He was later imprisoned for rallying. After his release, he walked to a port town in Sudan, where he waited by the docks with other migrants for work. The bell rang, interrupting Jonas's story. Noting his students' seemingly positive response, Jonas felt his account of Yosef's...