father on TV.) Baba gets in deep, deep trouble, but Baba is also saved (not his honour, but at least his life) -- and once he is a husband who just needs his wife (and who can't further endanger his family because he is no longer politically active), Mama also changes her tune and attitude. So, for example, when Suleiman conveniently walks in on them having sex again, lo and behold, Mama seems to really be into it now. In this book of oddly mixed messages, it's Suleiman that is then disposable, packed off to Egypt, out of their lives. Yes, he's being saved from a horrible regime, but he is also separated from his family and his friends; it's hard to imagine him not seeing himself as having been cast out, a traitor. Certainly, the small acts of betrayal and unkindness towards his friends weigh heavily on him, and no one has ever tried to make him feel better about them, a burden he has to carry around with him. But then Baba ratted out his comrades, too, so maybe his parents just feel that betrayal runs in the family and there's no need for excuses or explanations -- much less absolution. Matar does a decent job of conveying the child's confusion in face of the events around him. Politics remains largely incomprehensible to him -- he has no clear idea what his father is supporting, and like all the other boys secretly admires the terrible Ustath Jafer (and