The next day, at the shop, Émile would call his brother over and condescendingly inform him that since he’d heard he was unhappy and wanted to leave Benghazi, he should feel free to do so, that Émile had brought him over simply to help him through his infantile lack of direction and put him back on a straight, traditional path. Caught unawares so early in the morning, Armand would fail to summon the convictions he’d voiced the night before. All that delirious gibberish seemed so unreal and nonsensical when mouthed by his brother’s implacable voice in the light of day. Émile would then dismiss Armand with an annoyed wave of his hand, complaining that he’d already wasted enough time on him for the day.
CHAPTER 2
Olghina
I
An Italian physician and his wife, one of the first women to arriv
