The Other Americans

by Laila Lalami

“There wasn’t anything I could do,” I said, wiping my hands with a paper towel. Traces of grease still stuck underneath my fingernails. I walked past her to the bedroom, where I took off my uniform. The children were asleep in the bed under the window, and I moved quietly so that I wouldn’t rouse them. Elena was eight at the time, and Daniel was six. Both citizens, I want to be clear about that. Everything I did was for them. Or didn’t do, you might say.

Karima Ait-Yaacoub, who was the voice of the student movement at the university in Casablanca,

New chaacter

Elena

Efrain's daughter

Alonso. He was the son of my mother’s sister, born only a day before me, so that we grew up more like brothers than cousins.

Yeta nother character

What did a sophisticated boy like him, a boy who already knew exactly what he wanted to do with his life—aid management in developing countries—ever want with me? I could not think of a satisfying answer to that question, which was why I started to arrange my life around his.

So familiar. Never works.

The only difference was that instead of cheating on me, he had cheated with me.

??

He put his hand on my cheek, and after a moment his lips touched mine. How easy it was to lean into him. How good it felt to be wanted. He wrapped his arms around me and drew me so close that we almost lost our balance.

Gorgeous, Perfect .

In other words, I had been trying to hold on to the past at all cost.

My mother knew better; she didn’t try to fight her feelings of pain or fear, but accepted them as she might accept unwelcome visitors, knowing that someday, even if it was very far in the future, they would leave.

Important

but instead Evelyn had appeared. She set the tea on the table and considered me for a moment, a half smile on her face, before she reached back and slapped me, hitting me so hard that my ears rang.

Best moment in the book