49 pages • 1 hour read
Katherine MarshNowhere Boy
Fiction | Novel | YA | Published in 2018A modern alternative to SparkNotes and CliffsNotes, SuperSummary offers high-quality Study Guides with detailed chapter summaries and analysis of major themes, characters, and more.
Chapters 40-53Chapter Summaries & Analyses
Chapter 40 Summary
After school one day, Madame Pauline tells Max that the police finally caught the Paris terrorist in Molenbeek. Max asks Madame Pauline what happened to Ralph Mayer after the Nazis discovered him living in the house. Madame Pauline tells Max how Mayer escaped from the Gestapo. She says that when the Gestapo knocked on the door, Albert told his son, Pierre, to warn Mayer to run. Since Mayer slept upstairs, he ran along the roofs of the houses to escape. Pierre and another neighbor found Mayer later and hid him in the basement of the museum, where the neighbor worked until the war ended.
That night, Max tells Ahmed that the police caught the terrorist. Max thinks that people will start to relax about the refugee crisis. Since everyone at school likes Ahmed, Max suggests that they explain Ahmed’s situation to an adult, like Madame Legrand, who may try to help him rather than report him. Ahmed agrees to think about it.
Chapter 41 Summary
Max’s mom picks him up from school during the day. Max looks confused, but Ahmed assumes that it must be for an appointment. Over the next few minutes, other parents come to pick up their children, and Ahmed knows that something else has happened. Madame Legrand announces that there has been a terrorist attack at the Brussels airport. That afternoon, the students who have not been picked up by their parents, including Ahmed, spend time drawing happy pictures. Ahmed draws the garden at the back of the Howards’ house, and Madame Legrand is so impressed that she hangs the drawing on the classroom wall.
Chapter 42 Summary
At home, Max watches the news, which shows images of smoke coming up from the airport. Inspector Fontaine stops by their house and gives them his cell phone number to call in case they see any suspicious activity. Max knows that everyone will be on the lookout for someone who looks like Ahmed.
Chapter 43 Summary
After school, the teachers tell Ahmed that he must wait for his parents to pick him up because of the day’s events. Ahmed sees Inspector Fontaine at the school and gets nervous. He slips through the crowd of parents when no one is looking. As he walks down the street, he looks over his shoulder and sees Inspector Fontaine talking to the principal, pointing at him. Ahmed knows that Inspector Fontaine suspects him and will try to question him before long.
Chapter 44 Summary
That night, Claire asks Max if Ahmed made it home. Max tells her that he did, and she tells him that she does not think he should keep hiding Ahmed considering what happened. They fight because Max refuses to give Ahmed up. Max goes downstairs when his parents are asleep and finds that Ahmed has left, leaving a note telling him how to take care of the orchids and thanking him for his help.
Chapter 45 Summary
As Ahmed walks down the streets of Brussels, he realizes that his plan for going to Ibrahim will have to wait because the streets are full of police officers looking for people like him. He walks through a park, which he realizes is a graveyard. He sits down and cries for the loss of his family. He yells at Allah that he wishes the bomb killed all of them together so that he would not have to live with his grief.
Chapter 46 Summary
Oscar comes to Max’s house in the morning after receiving his text about Ahmed. When they leave the house, they call Farah and put her on speaker phone. They decide to go to Ibrahim’s house in Molenbeek to look for Ahmed. Oscar tells them that he will search for Ibrahim’s address at the commune and text them the location. Max meets Farah at Ibrahim’s house, and they tell him that they are friends of Ahmed. He says that he has been looking for Ahmed but cannot find him. Ibrahim tells them that he hopes that Ahmed comes to him because Ahmed’s father is alive and has been looking for him.
Chapter 47 Summary
In the morning, Ahmed reads the plaque next to a statue of a woman in the park. The plaque dedicates the statue to women and children who died in concentration camps in WWII. Ahmed feels hopeless, but he notices that the statue seems to be looking forward, toward a future Ahmed cannot see.
Chapter 48 Summary
Max runs through a park near Molenbeek, yelling for Ahmed. He will not give up until he finds him.
Chapter 49 Summary
Ahmed hears Max calling for him. Before he can speak, Max tells him that his father is alive. Ahmed does not believe it, but Max tells him that Ibrahim has received texts from his father. The coast guard rescued Baba, and he was in a hospital in Turkey for weeks. By the time Baba tried calling Ahmed, the smuggler had already taken Ahmed’s phone. Ahmed feels weak with relief. Max tells him that while Baba was looking for Ahmed, the border patrol arrested him, and he is in a detention center in Hungary. Max tells him that he knows the name of the center and that there is a refugee rights group trying to help Baba. Ahmed tells him that he must go to Hungary to find his father. Max says that he will not let Ahmed go alone. Max tells him they can wear his Scouts uniforms and pretend that they are going on a Scouts trip.
Chapter 50 Summary
That night, Ahmed sleeps in Max’s bed as an acknowledged guest. The boys tell Max’s parents that Ahmed needs to spend the night because of the panic over the terrorist attacks. A sound wakes Max up, and he thinks it is his alarm, but Ahmed tells him it was the doorbell. Max goes downstairs after his father. When Max’s father opens the door, Inspector Fontaine bursts in and tells him that he needs to see the wine cellar. Inspector Fontaine goes down to the basement, and Max rushes upstairs. He runs into Claire and realizes that she told Inspector Fontaine about Ahmed. Max pushes her away and tells Ahmed to run. Max and Ahmed grab their packed bags and escape onto the roof through the window, just like Ralph Mayer did with the help of Pierre Jonnart.
Chapter 51 Summary
As Ahmed and Max run over the roofs, Inspector Fontaine yells at Max that they received word that there is a Syrian terrorist named “Ahmed the Gardener” (281). Ahmed tells Max that he is not the man they are looking for, but Max says that he already knew that. Ahmed helps Max scale a wall and a drainpipe to get down from the roof. They run to Max’s bike and pedal away from the police officers.
Chapter 52 Summary
When they get to the train station, they go through a security check with a soldier. The soldier believes their story about being on a Scouts trip, and they make their way onto the train. Ahmed points down the aisle, and Max sees a police officer walking down the aisle checking passports.
Chapter 53 Summary
Ahmed motions to Max to stand up, and they calmly walk to the bathroom. They go into the bathroom together and lock the door behind them. Ahmed whispers that if the policeman knocks, Max should answer it and pretend he is alone. After a while, Max exits and checks the area, letting Ahmed know that the policeman has moved on. They go back to their seats and realize with relief that they have crossed the German border.
Chapters 40-53 Analysis
Although Max assumes that the apprehension of the Paris terrorist will lead to Brussels calming down about the refugees, it does not lessen the xenophobia from people who already assume that all Muslims are terrorists. After the terrorist attack on the Brussels airport, the Challenges and Resilience of Refugees are even more prominent. Farah tells Ahmed that “[e]very Muslim in Brussels [will] be a suspect, at least in the minds of non-Muslim Europeans” (240). Inspector Fontaine’s request to the Howards that they inform him if they see any Arab men in their area infuriates Max because he knows that Fontaine is “basically telling the whole neighborhood to look for someone like Ahmed” (244). Max feels that this approach reflects Albert Jonnart and Ralph Mayer’s experience because he fears the surveillance of neighbors who may report Ahmed. The uncertainty and fear surrounding Muslims cause Ahmed to put himself in danger by leaving Max’s house.
After Ahmed leaves Max’s house, he feels depressed as he stumbles across a graveyard. The graveyard reminds him of his family, who are all dead as far as he knows, and he kneels before one of the gravestones and cries. Ahmed cries because the world does not allow him a sense of normalcy; since he is a refugee, a circumstance outside of his control, he cannot even go to school or experience any typical events of childhood. Ahmed feels that he “no longer ha[s] the strength to build a new life for himself, especially […] in Europe, where he [isn’t] even wanted” (247). Ahmed’s despair turns to anger as he yells at Allah that he should have let him die along with his sisters, mother, and grandfather. Ahmed experiences survivor’s guilt, not understanding why he lived while his entire family died. However, even in his despair, Ahmed feels driven by a survival instinct: He fears that someone will see him yelling at the sky and see “the angry, young Muslim everyone fear[s]” (257).
Yet, for the first time in the narrative, Ahmed experiences hope when Max tells him that his father is still alive. Ahmed needs to reunite with his father, no matter the cost. Max’s offer to go with him highlights the theme of Friendship Across Cultural Divides. Max, now keenly aware of his own privilege, is willing to risk his own safety and his relationship with his own parents to ensure that Ahmed makes it back to his father. Max’s white skin and his American passport provide cover for Ahmed that the latter would not have on his own. Additionally, the Belgian Scouts uniforms give both boys the camouflage they need to slip past security checks.
