Summary

The novel opens in 2014 at King’s Cross station in London, England. The narrator, Khaled, is waiting with his old friend, Hosam, as he is about to catch a train to Paris, before departing to move to America. Both men are from Libya and used to both live in London, where they spent a lot of time together, talking and discussing literature. Hosam left London to fight in the Libyan revolution in 2011 and was returning to London for the first time to see Khaled before moving to California.

The previous evening, at Khaled’s flat, Hosam told Khaled the story of his father purchasing a house in California which he was never able to visit or live in because of political restrictions in Libya. Hosam planned to finally move there himself with his wife and daughter despite never having been there before. Hosam...