Summary

In chapter 19 the narrator describes Viktor's thoughts on such topics as his own Jewish identity and the similarities between Fascism and science. He considers that there is nobody he can talk to about these ideas because they will think he is "psychopath" (95). Viktor reads again the last letter from his mother.

In chapter 20, Lyudmila receives a letter explaining that her son Tolya is still alive, although he was badly wounded on the battlefield. She goes to give the news to Viktor at his office, where everyone is in a good mood because they have been scheduled to return to Moscow. As they leave the office, Lyudmila learns the location of her son from a doctor at a local hospital. By the end of the chapter, she has left her family to take a steamboat to Saratov, where Tolya is hospitalized.

Chapter...