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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 kind of mess does Mina think Lesbos becomes shortly after she leaves?

2. What do Mazen and Mina use as children to form their blood pact?

3. How is Pete Jones injured in war?

4. What does Sumaiya say she likes about Mina's appearance in Part III?

5. Where was a famous burial site in Iraq Mina references in Part IV?

Short Essay Questions

1. How did Mazen first begin reestablishing contact with Mina after some years of estrangement?

2. Why does Sammy tell the journalists they finally left Syria?

3. What can Mina not help thinking about women from Deir-ez-Zor?

4. What happened to Linda Abdullah's father at the end of his life?

5. In Part III, how does Mina's mother react after the car accident in her childhood?

6. What incidents does the writer compare to the myth of Icarus?

7. Why does Mazen get so mad at the western journalists' questioning of Sammy and Samaiya?

8. What does Mina think of George W. Bush's post-9/11 speech?

9. Why does Mina want to buy a Jaguar in her midlife?

10. What does Mina really think of the man who says he worked for a jewler?

Essay Topics

Write an essay for ONE of the following topics:

Essay Topic 1

What complications about the motivations and goals of the aid workers on Lesbos does Alameddine reveal throughout the novel? What are some of the different and opposing perspectives different characters, including Emma, Rasheed, and Mina take about the aid workers? Write an essay explaining your answers, citing specific references to the text to help support your conclusions.

Essay Topic 2

Why do you think Alameddine chooses for Mina, the narrator, to address the unnamed writer as "you" throughout the novel? How does this choice affect the reader's ability to connect with both Mina's and the writer's perspectives? Write an essay explaining your answers.

Essay Topic 3

How does Alameddine describe Mina's process of gender transition? Why do you think he chooses to pace the revelations about Mina's gender transition the way he does throughout the novel? Write an essay explaining your answers.

(see the answer keys)

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