Summary

Dr. Anderson narrates this chapter, as he comforts both women dealing with a loss and a panic he cannot comprehend. Janie tells him she regrets coming to the house, she regrets getting involved with him. Dr. Anderson promises her that they’ll find his son. They call 911 and memories of Noah painfully spring into Janie’s mind. She asks Dr. Anderson how he can bear losing someone and, in the deepest moment of connection he has participated in through the whole novel, the doctor tells her “you take a breath. Then you take another” (243). His advice suggests that coping with grief involves moving from moment to moment. Dealing with stress involves throwing yourself into the present, as the minutes tick by in the new version of your life you have to live.

Chapter 28 begins with another case study: Nazih Al-Danaf...