Chapter 5 Summary and Analysis

Sultana flashes back to her youngest daughter Amani's birth. She and her sister Sara delivered around the same time. Sara's daughter, Nashwa, is loud and obnoxious, while Amani is quiet and loving, and so Sultana has often wondered whether the babies were switched in the hospital, because Nashwa is so much closer to Sultana in personality.

Unlike Maha, Amani is quiet and unassuming. She is smart and reads a lot. However, Amani develops a love for animals, something she does not share with most Saudis. She protests when family members go out on hunts, dismantling firearms and throwing ammunition away. She also takes stray cats and other animals in, testing the limits of her family's patience. The family eventually builds a small zoo and hires a couple of zookeepers to satisfy Amani's love of animals. Amani becomes fanatic about animals, offering...