There is only one teacher left in Aleppo, but Lamya is still one of his favorites. He even lends her books from his library, like a treasured volume of Rumi’s poetry. That becomes his party gift to his pupil when the bombing forces her widowed mother to evacuate the city. Braving the seas on a refugee raft is a dangerous and expensive undertaking, but she believes it is the only way for her daughter to have a future.
During moments of high stress, Lamya is somehow transported back centuries, where she befriends the young Rumi, who is also fleeing Mongol invaders. However, his father makes a fateful decision to take advantage of their refugee state, to make pilgrimage to Mecca. While it is unclear whether these sequences are meant to be dreams or magical realism time travel that ambiguity probably increases their effectiveness. Frankly, it would not be surprising if Slaughterhouse Five was an influence on Kronemer.
