One day that year a distant relative appeared on their doorstep, an artist by profession who could also play the piano. Born in Palestine, he had been sent to Munich by his father in the 1920s when he was fifteen years old to study medicine or become an engineer, but his real desire was to become an artist. He enrolled himself in the Munich Academy of the Arts, where, in addition to studying painting and architecture, he also learned to play the piano. Although he eventually married a German woman and had two children with her, he was forced to leave the country when Hitler rose to power. When he came back to Germany to search for them in 1948 he was unable to find them; upon returning to Palestine he found it transformed into the state of Israel. Unlike the Abbouds, he decided to emigrate to Lebanon. Now, decades later, in Saleem’s house, he immediately sat down at the piano and began to play. Saleem’s parents, who both worked, were grateful to have a babysitter for the children and Saleem became entranced by his distant relative, by the music he played and by the piano. It was at this point that he told his parents that he had to learn to play the piano himself. << less