Apeirogon

During every lecture he gave with the Combatants for Peace group during its first two years, Bassam used to hold the candy bracelet that Abir bought before she died. On a hot day, the candy bracelet made his hands pink-colored as it mixed with his sweat. Later he was detained by the police at gunpoint and interrogated for five hours. Semtex can leave a pink residue on those who handle it.

In prison, Bassam and the others would collect errant materials and objects to create instruments. Amidst the squalor and decay of the prison conditions, the inmates did their best to keep their spirits up: They prayed, they chanted poetry, they fashioned traditional garments from kitchen rags and dishtowels.

Bassam’s first encounters with Hertzl the prison guard were contentious. This eventually changed. Hertzl mentions that Bassam’s prison number is an “amicable number,” which are “two different numbers related in the sense that when you add all their proper divisors together—not including the original number itself—the sums of their divisors equal each other” (97).

In prison, the guards would strip the prisoners naked to beat them. Bassam recalls the shame this brought him and the embarrassment. Hertzl was the only guard not to participate; in fact he even threw himself over Bassam to stop another baton blow.