Chapter One

1


The engagement had been announced before the terrible thing happened. Sometimes it was hard to remember that. And at other times, when one was deep in the midst of choosing table linens and centerpieces, it became possible not to think about the terribleness at all, to let it drift into a distant corner of one's mind as if it had happened in a distant corner of the world. Even so, there were some on Nasr's side who, as late as November, suggested that postponing the wedding (perhaps even indefinitely) would not, under the circumstances, be an unreasonable request to make of the bride's family. Eventually, it was the "perhaps even indefinitely" part that would catch Nasr's attention-what, exactly, had that meant? But at the time he was simply annoyed. He wondered how long he and Farah were expected to accommodate world events. And he knew that the people who had made such remarks were letting themselves see bad omens and connectivity even though one thing had been set in motion before the other.

But before all that, in August at the engagement party, there had been a sharp, satisfying little gasp from the crowd when Nasr pulled open the blue clamshell box containing the ring he had secretly purchased. Sitting beside him, Farah had drawn back, too. Her face was concealed behind a filmy green rupatta, so Nasr couldn't tell by her eyes whether her slim shoulders had reacted to the flash of the carats or to the sound of their reception. He paused to wait for an instruction from one of his elders on how to proceed. He didn't mind extending these little courtesies; to him, they were not acts of blind deference but facets of a sensitivity to the benefits of accomm