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This test consists of 5 short answer questions, 10 short essay questions, and 1 (of 3) essay topics.

Short Answer Questions

1. What does Nora find out her father ordered for a woman who was not her mother?

2. What is Coleman's first name?

3. What does Coleman refuse to reveal to Nora when she asks in Part II?

4. What does Nora forget in her car at her father's funeral?

5. What is one detail the police know about the car that hit Driss?

Short Essay Questions

1. Why does Jeremy go to see Mary in Part II?

2. What happens to Driss's donut shop after 9/11?

3. What early embarrassing experience does Maryam have in trying to speak to a stranger and make friends in Part I, during her early days in America?

4. When is the one time Jeremy remembers his father telling him he was proud of Jeremy?

5. What is Nora's relationship with Salma like?

6. What does Anderson Baker tell Coleman about the night Driss died in Part II?

7. What does Maryam do in the period that Nora thinks of as the "Cold War" phase of her parents' relationship?

8. How does Jeremy's father change after his mother's death?

9. What happens that destroys Jeremy's family while he is in high school?

10. Why does Jeremy decide to go to Nora's family's house for her father's wake?

Essay Topics

Write an essay for ONE of the following topics:

Essay Topic 1

What feelings and tensions does Lalami use to show the differences between Nora and Jeremy in terms of their feelings on the war, guns, and law enforcement to explore throughout the novel? Write an essay explaining your answers, citing specific references to the text to help support your conclusions.

Essay Topic 2

How does Lalami establish and maintain suspense throughout this novel? Write an essay explaining your answers, citing specific references to the text to help support your conclusions.

Essay Topic 3

How does Lalami treat the theme of infidelity in general, and what does Nora's discovery of her father's affair do to her perception of herself and her own affair with Max, a married man? Write an essay explaining your answers, citing specific references to the text to help support your conclusions.

(see the answer keys)

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