But if you have a book that needs urgent reading,' she said, 'then Hakim is your man.

Baba dropped the stack of food stamps on her desk. "Thank you but I don't want," Baba said. "I work always. In Afghanistan I work, in America I work. Thank you very much, Mrs. Dobbins, but I don't like it free money."...Baba walked out of the welfare office like a man cured of a tumor.

A boy who won't stand up for himself becomes a man who can't stand up to anything.