(445 pages)
[The names of the three sections are names of streets in old Cairo where characters live and much of the action takes place.]
Part 2 of the trilogy starts with the family very sad because of Falmy.
Amina (mother) affected most; she is aging rapidly, still mostly confined to her house but at least can go to the cemetery and mosque pretty much when she wants.
Father is also aging and getting some health scares - had seemed indestructible but behaviors (resumed after a several-years break) take a toll. Author explores how aging felt to the father, did a good job.
Some looks at the daughters (Khadija, Aisha) who married the brothers.
Yasin not very good at marriage, impulsive, somehow genuinely likeable throughout.
Yasin's tastes overlapping with his father's. Which creates situations.
Much focus on Kamal (youngest son) - he's growing up, getting educated, falling in love, has a best friend who is brother of his love interest. Best friend and his sister move out of Egypt, Kamal loses his previously strict faith as he progress in his studies. The author does a good job exploring how these losses affect Kamal. Modernity invading traditional ways.
Kamal tries alcohol, runs into Yasin in a brothel.
The father has a major health scare toward the end of this work and vows to change his ways.
Aisha's family is stricken with typhus.
The revolutionary leader so admired by Falmy and Kamal passes away as the book ends. Another loss.
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