Every time she looked back to the lobby, she could catch glimpses of them on tiptoe, waiting to see if they might connect with her one more time.
This moment occurs at the end of the story "The Suitcase," when, after helping Saba pack her two suitcases, Saba's relatives anxiously and excitedly watch as she makes her way to her flight terminal. Earlier in the story, they tell Saba to return to Ethiopia soon, and that she is always welcome. This emotional moment underscores the closeness the family feels with Saba as they have gotten to know her. It also shows the way in which this departure is extremely poignant, as they don't want her visit to end. Their love indicates that her roots will always remain, as her Ethiopian family will always have a place for her, in the same way that she kept a place in her suitcase for them.
Herr Weill didn’t reveal very much that first day but opened up just to tell me he had been a refugee once, too, and had left home when he was a teenager because a war scattered his whole family. He spoke slowly and said little, but it was also an outpouring, I could tell. From then on, we talked often about these things, like conflict, violence, war, fleeing from it and the way it makes you tired whether you’re running or still. We talked about scars, invisible and visible, instant and latent ones, all real. How hard it is not to keep losing things because of conflict, even once it’s far away, miles or years away, and yet, how life fills up with other things all the while.
This quote occurs in the story "The Wall," which concerns the unlikely friendship between an older German man, Johannes Weill, and a young Ethiopian boy. They connect over their shared experience of being refugees from countries devastated by war. While they fled different conflicts—Weill left Germany during World War II while the boy left Ethiopia during the Derg—they quickly find that they have a number of common emotions about fleeing their home. As this quote painfully elucidates, they are haunted by a sense of loss and cannot shake the continual feeling of being pursued. They are comforted by their ability to communicate this strange sensation of being far away from conflict, but having pain with the same level of immediacy as when they left. This moment in the story reveals how their hardships transcend cultural context.
"Culture fit?" Getu almost heard his mother's voice come back to him. They'll never let you in, she'd chided before.
This quote occurs in the story "The Street Sweep." The story is about a young man named Getu who works as a street sweeper. Inspired by the encouragement of Jeff Johnson, an NGO worker, Getu attends a private party, claiming to be one of his employees. In this moment, he feels his mother's suspicion and derision about his ever being accepted by members of the upper class. The way his mother's voice lingers in his head shows how much he is affected by her constant criticism. At the same time, her words end up being prophetic, as Jeff has no actual intention of helping Getu, but was merely making vague, false promises. Getu's mother turns out to be correct when Jeff does not allow Getu into his social circle.
"You know the Derg as a definition, a Cold War regime that lasted too long and did too much harm. But those of us who got to truly know the Derg over all those years, who knew it as an uninvited guest dropping in on each meal and in every interaction, well..."
This quote is from the story "Kind Stranger." It occurs when the narrator is talking to a strange man on the street. The man asks if he remembers the Derg and the narrator claims to. In this moment, the man pushes back on the narrator's claim, saying that he is too young to have actually experienced the Derg as a historical event. In this way, he makes a distinction between the Ethiopian citizens who suffered directly under its brutal oppression and the ones who know it primarily as information in a textbook or newspaper. This carries significant weight for the story overall, as the stranger's life is permanently altered when he is arrested and tortured by the regime. He makes this pointed criticism of the narrator because he is bitter about how his life has been so fundamentally warped by this political violence.
Maybe, he'd get a reliable cab, maybe buy a light bulb hood ornament of his own like Bobby had, maybe paint his cab green like a fresh start, still working toward that promised life, waiting for it to begin.
This excerpt comes at the end of the story "Medallion," which describes how Yohannes, an engineering student, gets swindled into driving a cab for a scam artist named Bobby. This quote is the final sentence of the story and comes after Yohannes has learned that Bobby hasn't been saving some of his wages for his medallion but has just been stealing from him. This conclusion is a grim one, as Yohannes is expressing a hope for the future, but has become trapped in a cycle of poverty that he cannot escape. The reader knows that the car he is envisioning will never arrive in the same way that the "promised life" he wants so badly has been permanently damaged by Bobby's interference. A "fresh start" is no longer truly feasible for Yohannes.
One of their regular customers—a construction worker—said it was like being a kid and opening his lunchbox on the playground.
In this quote from "A Down Home Meal for These Difficult Times," a regular at the restaurant owned by Jazarah and Yeshi describes what draws him to their food. By comparing it to the sensation of being a kid "opening his lunchbox," he captures both the wonder and comfort he finds in their meals. He suggests that their restaurant provides familiar joy, but is still exciting each time he comes back. He is able to describe what keeps people coming back to the restaurant while also accurately conveying what drew them to the recipes in the first place.
This time, though, the party grew very angry with the shy author. This second manuscript did not make any one of them look good. In fact, it made them look downright dirty.
This moment is from the first part of "The Life and Times of the Little Manuscript & Anonymous." The story is about a woman who writes an inspiring manuscript and is catapulted to celebrity status. However, when she writes a second manuscript that is less flattering to the current political regime, she is immediately repudiated. In this manner, the story reveals how dangerously fickle political figures are and also how risky writing about politics can be when one is even slightly critical of the people in power.
And regardless of who committed the crime, who knew about it, permitted it, allowed it to happen, protected the assailants, continued to protect them... Without attribution the hate seemed everywhere. And so did the fear.
This is from the story "The Elders." The story is about the funeral arrangements for an engineer named Paulos. He is killed by a group of men in an act of racially motivated violence. This quote describes the way that the crime, and the people protecting the criminals in various ways, makes everyone in the community feel afraid, as it seems as though hate is everywhere and any group of people could have done it. This moment emphasizes how this horrific murder makes the racial tensions in their community not only apparent but pervasive.
He used to think the act of acquisition was the most difficult thing—finding a wife and getting her to marry him, or finding a good home and putting something down—but these years taught him that holding on to what one got was the harder task.
This passage is from the story "Preludes." It comes after the narrator describes how a man named Amare has recently lost his home. In suffering this loss, he comes to realize that the struggle in America, for immigrants like himself, is not building a life, but, as his prospects dwindled, maintaining what he already had. This resonates with the rest of the story, as it deals with the gap between the kind of life Amare and other immigrants living in his community envisioned in contrast to the harder life they actually end up having.
This moment mattered to someone like me who sacrificed personally believing in all this, these symbols, their message, the songs, the flag, the promise I trusted so profoundly that when it called out to me from thousands of miles away, I responded with everything I had. That faith rooted deep, and maybe this is why somehow, despite everything, an immigrant can be among the most patriotic of all a country's citizens.
This quote is from the last story in the collection, "Swearing In, January 20, 2009." In it, a man travels to Washington D.C. to witness the inauguration of President Barack Obama. In this passage, he tries to explain why this moment made him feel so hopeful about the direction of the country and why he felt compelled to see it. He feels a personal connection to Obama, whose father immigrated to the U.S. from Kenya, as he believes he is evidence of the fact that immigrants can be patriotic, demonstrating love and service for their adopted country.
