Public executions occur frequently as the militants cement their control over the city.
Amidst the horror, Saeed’s father travels everyday to his brother’s house, where he sits with other old men and old women and talks about the past, often reminiscing about his wife, whom they all knew. On his way back, he stops and lingers at her grave. While doing this one day, he witnesses a group of teenagers playing soccer in the street and feels warmed by the memory of having done this himself as a boy.
When he looks closer, though, he sees the young men aren’t using a ball, but rather the severed head of a goat. Disgusted, he looks even closer before ripping his eyes away, for what he sees leaves him aghast the young men aren’t playing soccer with a goat’s head—they’re playing with a human head.
Once again, Hamid shows how fear has pervaded seemingly everyelement of his characters lives, such that Saeed’s father can’t evenwalk home from his wife’s grave without witnessing a sickening act.Still, he doesn’t stay holed up in the house. Instead, he dedicateshimself to maintaining his connections by visiting a community offriends and family and stopping to say hello to his wife’s grave. Evenso, life in this city is quickly changing for the worse, making it all themore apparent that Saeed, Nadia, and Saeed’s father are going toeither have to find away to exist safely (an all but impossible task)or somehow escape.Nadia and Saeed resolve to find a passage out of the city. One of their friends puts them in touch with an agent who claims to have access to the mysterious doors that transport people to other lands, so they set out one evening wearing the garments and stylings required by the militants. Terrified, they pass a hanging body and try to carry themselves innocently, knowing all the while that they’re being watched by drones flying overhead. When they reach
the place they were told to go, the agent tells them not to turnaround, approaching them from behind and demanding that Nadia uncover her head. When the agent asks for the money, Saeed gives it to him and wonders whether he’s making a down payment or being robbed.”
When Saeed and Nadia walk through the streets, Hamid notes thatthere are drones watching them from the sky. This ultimatelyintroduces anew form of connection into the storyline, adding tothe book’s previous considerations of how technology likecellphones put people in touch with one another. Now, Hamid callsreaders’ attention to a much broader form of connectivity as thedrones fly above and watch the two lovers with cameras connectedto unknown sources, thereby joining Saeed and Nadia with otherpeople in other parts of the world.While Saeed and Nadia wait to hear back from the agent—who’s busy searching fora new unguarded door—many people pass through doors around the world. One family in particular can be seen through a series of security cameras at a luxury resort in Dubai, where they emerge confusedly and walk
outside into the bright light, where they’re then picked up by still more security cameras and hovering drones, which chart their progression along a beach boardwalk, past tanning vacationers. The family drifts in and out of the cellphone frames of people taking selfies, making their way through the strange resort area until they’re intercepted and taken away by officers who jump out of a van with grilles on its windows.”
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