Frankenstein in Baghdad

Elishva tells the Creature, whom she is calling Daniel, to get up, thereby reanimating him and bringing him out of anonymity. The Creature follows Elishva into the sitting room, where she brings him old clothes from the real Daniel’s drawers. Elishva is unbothered by the fact that this Daniel does not look like her son did, since, “Not many people came back looking the same as when they left” (53); this lack of resemblance nevertheless confuses the corpse-Daniel, who is struck by his own ugliness when he compares himself to an old photo he finds of Daniel. Wearing Daniel’s old clothes, though, he looks much more like him.

Daniel sleeps on the sofa while Elishva goes about her daily chores. At this point, Hadi has now awoken and is in the courtyard wondering what has happened to the corpse. He is hesitant to ask anyone about the corpse because he is known as a liar; he instead makes general conversation with the local shop owners, but no one mentions anything relevant.

Umm Salim is happy to see Elishva at the butcher’s without her widow’s mourning headband. As the two return home together, Elishva tells Umm Salim that Daniel has returned; Umm Salim is confused but leaves Elishva to prepare lunch for her husband and forgets about it.