46 pages • 1 hour read
Dave EggersZeitoun
Nonfiction | Book | Adult | Published in 2009A modern alternative to SparkNotes and CliffsNotes, SuperSummary offers high-quality Study Guides with detailed chapter summaries and analysis of major themes, characters, and more.
Key Figures
Abdulrahman Zeitoun
Zeitoun is a Syrian-American man with a growing family and a thriving business in New Orleans. He comes from a high-achieving family who live all over the world. As a child, Zeitoun and his brothers were always around water, and after spending time at sea with his brother Ahmad, Zeitoun landed in Houston, TX, and then moved to New Orleans. There he met and married Kathy, an American woman who had converted to Islam as an adult. Zeitoun is a proud man, and is grateful for all that he’s achieved in his adopted city and country. He’s always striving to do good and to be a better person. This drive stems in part from his admiration of his brother Mohammed’s accomplishments as a world class ocean swimmer.
Zeitoun’s strong will and determination to help others help to set events in motion that will change his family’s lives forever. Arrested and convicted without trial, deprived of contact with his worried wife, Zeitoun begins to question the freedom and justice of his adopted country, and learns how easily those inalienable rights can be taken away.
Kathy Zeitoun
Kathy is Zeitoun’s American wife, having converted to Islam as an adult. Raised in a Christian household, she had negative preconceptions about Islam. However, she later discovered that Islam was very different to what she had thought, and confronted by her own religion’s intolerance of Islam, Kathy converted. As a result of her conversion, Kathy often has a rough time with her family, some of whom refuse to talk to her. Kathy has experienced her share of religious intolerance from others; however, like her husband she is very strong-willed and works to protect her family and faith.
With the news that Hurricane Katrina will be more powerful and destructive than initially thought, Kathy urges Zeitoun to flee with the family. His refusal to leave and her subsequent evacuation from New Orleans with their children affects Kathy in devastating ways. And when Zeitoun disappears without notice, Kathy is not sure if she can live a life without him.
Ahmad Zeitoun
Ahmad is Zeitoun’s older brother. He’s a ship captain who now lives in Malaga, Spain, with his family. The two brothers have had a very close relationship since childhood. Ahmad was a role model for Zeitoun when they were younger, and they both became sailors and traveled the world. Ahmad is in constant contact with Zeitoun, and later Kathy, after Hurricane Katrina hits.
Mohammed Zeitoun
Mohammed, one of Zeitoun’s older brothers, was a champion ocean swimmer who became a point of pride for their family and a legend in Syria. He was killed in a car accident at the age of 24, and his untimely death left a scar in the hearts of the Zeitoun family. Mohammed is a role model for Zeitoun as well, and he finds that his actions, perhaps unknowingly at first, are a way of acknowledging Mohammed as well as competing with the large shadow his memory, and success, casts.
Yuko
Yuko is a Japanese American woman and Kathy’s best friend. She converted to Islam before Kathy, and introduced Kathy to Islam as well. Yuko takes Kathy and her family in when they leave Baton Rouge and are waiting to hear back from Zeitoun.
Ahmaad
Ahmaad is Yuko’s husband, a Lebanese-American who was also Zeitoun’s first friend in the United States. He flies to Houston and drives Kathy and the kids all the way to his home in Phoenix, Arizona.
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