Summary: A Thousand Splendid Suns

Dur­ing the mid-20th cen­tu­ry in Afghanistan, the lives of two young girls unfold through inter­twined sto­ries. Mari­am, an ille­git­i­mate child born in the 1950s, leads a seclud­ed exis­tence with her moth­er Nana in a hum­ble dwelling pro­vid­ed by her father, Jalil. Despite her long­ing for accep­tance from her father, Mari­am faces a series of dis­ap­point­ments, includ­ing Jalil break­ing a promise to cel­e­brate her fif­teenth birth­day. This dis­ap­point­ment prompts her to ven­ture out in search of him, only to return to the trag­ic dis­cov­ery of her moth­er’s sui­cide. Over­whelmed with guilt and seek­ing refuge from her father’s rejec­tion, Mari­am is ulti­mate­ly mar­ried off to Rasheed, a shoe­mak­er three decades her senior, and is relo­cat­ed to Kab­ul, mark­ing the end of her ties with her father. Mean­while, in the same city, dur­ing the late 1970s, we encounter Laila, born amidst polit­i­cal tur­moil and a com­mu­nist rev­o­lu­tion. Her sto­ry is tint­ed with sor­row due to her broth­ers’ deaths in the resis­tance against Sovi­et Rus­sia and her moth­er’s sub­se­quent depres­sion. Laila finds solace in her father, a uni­ver­si­ty pro­fes­sor, and Tariq, a pro­tec­tive friend. Their friend­ship blos­soms into a deep bond, but Tariq’s fam­i­ly’s sud­den exo­dus from war-strick­en Kab­ul leaves Laila shat­tered. Fol­low­ing the loss of her par­ents in a rock­et strike, she is res­cued by Rasheed and Mari­am, lead­ing to an unex­pect­ed pro­pos­al of mar­riage from Rasheed.

Now car­ry­ing Tariq’s child, she accepts Rasheed’s pro­pos­al and false­ly claims him as the father of her unborn child. Rasheed’s oppres­sive patri­ar­chal dom­i­nance, exac­er­bat­ed by the Tal­iban regime, sub­jects both wives to abu­sive con­trol. When the truth about the pater­ni­ty of Laila’s daugh­ter sur­faces, Rasheed’s bru­tal­i­ty inten­si­fies. Even­tu­al­ly, Laila bears him a son, but Rasheed’s finan­cial insta­bil­i­ty forces her to place her daugh­ter in an orphan­age. The rev­e­la­tion of Tariq’s sur­vival trig­gers a chain of events cul­mi­nat­ing in Mari­am killing Rasheed to pro­tect Laila. To shield Laila and her chil­dren, Mari­am takes full respon­si­bil­i­ty for the mur­der and faces a death sen­tence. Laila, Tariq, and the chil­dren find sanc­tu­ary in Pak­istan, even­tu­al­ly return­ing to a revived Kab­ul. Uti­liz­ing the inher­i­tance left to her by Mari­am’s father, they refur­bish the orphan­age, and Laila, now expect­ing a child, assumes a teach­ing role there, hon­or­ing the mem­o­ry of the woman who saved her life.

Chapter 1

Mari­am, the ille­git­i­mate child of Jalil Khan, a pros­per­ous man with three wives, is raised by her moth­er Nana, who was nev­er mar­ried to Jalil. At the age of five, Mari­am acci­den­tal­ly breaks Nana’s tea set and is labeled a hara­mi, expos­ing the truth of her birth. Nana, once a maid in Jalil’s house­hold, was left to live in a small hut called a kol­ba with Mari­am. Nana had expressed her regret to Mari­am that Jalil did not end their lives before birth.

Chapter 2

With the assis­tance of his sons, Jalil con­structs a mod­est hut, or kol­ba, for Nana and her child. Instead of employ­ing work­ers, Jalil decides to com­plete the task him­self. Born in 1959, Mari­am receives con­flict­ing nar­ra­tives about her birth. Accord­ing to Nana, she gave birth to Mari­am alone in their kol­ba, and Jalil only vis­it­ed a month lat­er. On the con­trary, Jalil claims he arranged for Nana’s hos­pi­tal deliv­ery and even select­ed Mari­am’s name. Believ­ing in her father’s ver­sion, Mari­am eager­ly antic­i­pates his week­ly visits.

Chapter 3

Jalil’s sons deliv­er sup­plies to Nana and Mari­am every month, a ges­ture met by Nana’s hurl­ing of stones and ver­bal out­bursts. Nana har­bors a strong dis­like for vil­lagers who bring gifts for Mari­am. Despite this, Mari­am looks for­ward to her reg­u­lar inter­ac­tions with Mul­lah Faizul­lah, the local tutor, who teach­es her read­ing and prayer. Upon learn­ing that Jalil’s oth­er daugh­ters attend school, Mari­am express­es her desire to join them with Mul­lah Faizul­lah. Despite her wish, Nana adamant­ly denies per­mis­sion for Mari­am’s school­ing, empha­siz­ing that she only needs to learn one les­son in life: endurance.

Chapter 4

Mari­am eager­ly awaits her father’s week­ly vis­its, fill­ing her days with excite­ment. Dur­ing these vis­its, Jalil, Nana, and Mari­am engage in pleas­ant inter­ac­tions, engag­ing in activ­i­ties like fish­ing and singing togeth­er. Jalil also brings Mari­am small gifts and shares news from the world beyond her kol­ba. After Jalil leaves, Mari­am dreams of being an inte­gral part of his life, resid­ing under the same roof and car­ing for him.

Chapter 5

Jalil con­tin­ues his vis­its to Mari­am and Nana, while Nana main­tains a com­posed demeanor. How­ev­er, in 1974, as Mari­am nears her fif­teenth birth­day, she express­es her desire to watch “Pinoc­chio” at the cin­e­ma. Upon Jalil’s depar­ture, Nana scolds Mari­am for her per­ceived lack of grat­i­tude and her wish to leave Nana alone. When her birth­day arrives with­out Jalil, Mari­am goes in search of him for the first time, defy­ing Nana’s warn­ings. Despite a friend­ly encounter with vil­lagers who assist her in locat­ing Jalil’s house, she is turned away upon reach­ing her father’s doorstep. On her return home, Mari­am is greet­ed with a trag­ic sight: Nana has tak­en her own life.

Chapter 6

After bury­ing Nana, Mari­am, long­ing for Mul­lah Faizul­lah, finds some solace in his recita­tions of the Koran. Despite attempts to con­sole her, Mari­am’s guilt over her moth­er’s death lingers. She iso­lates her­self in Jalil’s home, where her half-sis­ter Nilo­u­far intro­duces a gramo­phone and plays music. When Mul­lah Faizul­lah vis­its, Mari­am con­fides her sense of respon­si­bil­i­ty for Nana’s death. He reas­sures her that her moth­er’s life­long sor­row is not her fault. Short­ly after, Mari­am is sum­moned for an urgent fam­i­ly dis­cus­sion by Nilo­u­far’s mother.

Chapter 7

Jalil’s wives inform Mari­am of a forth­com­ing mar­riage pro­pos­al from Rasheed, a wid­owed shoe­mak­er from Kab­ul aged 45. Mari­am hes­i­tates, feel­ing too young and express­ing her desire to stay with Mul­lah Faizul­lah. Despite her objec­tions, Jalil’s wives insist she is of a suit­able age for mar­riage and argues that liv­ing with her elder­ly tutor would bur­den him and his fam­i­ly. Dis­re­gard­ing Mari­am’s wish­es, Jalil pro­ceeds with the plans for the mar­riage proposal.at Rasheed. Fol­low­ing this, Mari­am is returned to her cham­bers and kept in captivity.

Chapter 8

Mari­am becomes Rasheed’s wife on the suc­ceed­ing day. Mak­ing arrange­ments for their jour­ney to Kab­ul, Jalil bids them farewell at the bus ter­mi­nal. Despite Jalil’s attempts to per­suade Mari­am about the charms of Kab­ul, she inter­rupts him. She admits her deep fond­ness for him but also her new­found under­stand­ing that he is ashamed of her. She requests her father not to vis­it her in Kab­ul any­more, stat­ing she no longer desires to main­tain ties with him. As the bus departs, Mari­am boards with­out look­ing back.

Chapter 9

Rasheed acquaints Mari­am with their res­i­dence, evok­ing in her a pro­found yearn­ing for her past. Her tears unset­tle Rasheed, who dis­plays dis­gust towards wom­en’s weep­ing. He guides Mari­am to her own quar­ters, indi­cat­ing his pref­er­ence for soli­tude dur­ing the night. Observ­ing Mari­am’s trem­bling, he ques­tions if she is afraid of him, to which she false­ly replies in the neg­a­tive. Rasheed express­es cer­tain­ty that Mari­am will grow fond of this new envi­ron­ment before he departs, leav­ing her alone.

Chapter 10

For sev­er­al days, Mari­am remains con­fined in her room, gripped by fear. She lis­tens as Rasheed recounts his dai­ly affairs and the news each night. Much of it appears non­sen­si­cal to her, and she patient­ly awaits his depar­ture. One evening, Rasheed hints that the time has come for Mari­am to embrace her respon­si­bil­i­ties as his spouse. Sub­se­quent­ly, Mari­am starts unpack­ing her belong­ings the next day. She tidies the house and pre­pares meals. To bake her bread, she must uti­lize the com­mu­nal oven, known as the tan­door. Upon arrival, she is bom­bard­ed with inquiries from the local women, lead­ing Mari­am to quick­ly retreat back home, feel­ing over­whelmed. Upon Rasheed’s return, he over­looks the clean house but prais­es her cook­ing. Rasheed then men­tions guid­ing her around Kab­ul the next day, pre­sent­ing her with a burqa to wear. He makes it clear that he expects Mari­am, his law­ful part­ner, to respect his pri­va­cy: her vis­age is his concern.

Chapter 11

Rasheed aids Mari­am in don­ning her burqa, an unfa­mil­iar gar­ment for her. Rasheed insists that she will even­tu­al­ly grow fond of it. Dur­ing a sub­se­quent out­ing to the mar­ket, Rasheed enters a shop, leav­ing Mari­am to observe oth­er women who appear “mod­ern” with their make­up, styl­ish footwear, and free­dom to move with­out male escorts. Upon his return, Rasheed gifts Mari­am a refined, silk scarf, a ges­ture that Mari­am views as benev­o­lence, express­ing her grat­i­tude. That night, Rasheed remains present con­tin­u­ous­ly. With his hand on Mari­am’s neck, he touch­es her despite her obvi­ous dis­com­fort and fear. Their inti­ma­cy dis­tress­es Mari­am, and once he is done, Rasheed exits the room.

Chapter 12

Mari­am pre­pares for Ramadan, notic­ing alter­ations in both Rasheed and Kab­ul. Rasheed spo­rad­i­cal­ly observes the fast, lead­ing to his irri­tabil­i­ty. The cul­mi­na­tion of Ramadan brings solace and hap­pi­ness for Mari­am as she and Rasheed engage in city­wide fes­tiv­i­ties. Mari­am encoun­ters a woman named Fari­ba whom she had encoun­tered pre­vi­ous­ly. Rasheed cau­tions Mari­am to steer clear of Fari­ba, label­ing her as a med­dle­some gos­sip and her hus­band as an arro­gant intel­lec­tu­al. Dur­ing the three-day Eid cel­e­bra­tions mark­ing the end of fast­ing, Rasheed enter­tains male guests. Mari­am remains unaf­fect­ed by being rel­e­gat­ed upstairs dur­ing these gath­er­ings as Rasheed aims to pro­tect her hon­or. While tidy­ing Rasheed’s quar­ters, Mari­am dis­cov­ers a gun and adult mag­a­zines, leav­ing her stunned and per­plexed. She also stum­bles upon pho­tographs of Rasheed’s late wife and son, lead­ing her to grieve for his loss. Mari­am clings to the hope of estab­lish­ing a stronger bond with Rasheed.

Chapter 13

Upon con­fir­ma­tion of Mari­am’s preg­nan­cy by a med­ical pro­fes­sion­al, Rasheed eager­ly antic­i­pates the baby’s arrival by recon­fig­ur­ing their liv­ing space. They com­mem­o­rate this event joy­ful­ly among Rasheed’s rel­a­tives and pals. Mari­am is brim­ming with love for her unborn child and implores Allah to allow her to retain this pre­cious bless­ing. Rasheed sug­gests that Mari­am vis­it a pub­lic bath­house. Despite the wel­com­ing and sooth­ing atmos­phere, Mari­am expe­ri­ences unease due to the unfa­mil­iar faces sur­round­ing her. She cross­es paths with Fari­ba, who dis­cov­ers Mari­am weep­ing alone, accom­pa­nied by evi­dence of blood near­by. Fol­low­ing this inci­dent, Rasheed hasti­ly escorts her to the med­ical prac­ti­tion­er, who con­firms the trag­ic loss of the baby. Upon return­ing home, Rasheed cov­ers Mari­am with a blan­ket, express­ing his dis­plea­sure towards the doc­tor who inter­pret­ed the mis­car­riage as a divine decree. As Mari­am gazes at the snow­fall, mem­o­ries of her own moth­er flood her mind.

Chapter 14

Mari­am’s grief man­i­fests through var­i­ous emo­tions such as envy, remorse, and fury. At times, she blames Rasheed for pre­ma­ture­ly cel­e­brat­ing, while at oth­ers, she holds her­self or Allah account­able. Rasheed becomes tem­pera­men­tal, inces­sant­ly rep­ri­mand­ing Mari­am and ceas­ing to bestow gifts upon her. One evening, Mari­am sug­gests to Rasheed that they hold a funer­al for their child. Jalil declines, hav­ing pre­vi­ous­ly endured the loss of anoth­er child. Lat­er that week, Mari­am buries the infan­t’s coat in their yard and offers prayers over the makeshift grave, seek­ing strength from Allah.

Chapter 15

As Mari­am com­mem­o­rates her nine­teenth birth­day in 1978, Afghanistan is in the throes of polit­i­cal upheaval. When she broach­es the sub­ject of the esca­lat­ing com­mu­nist influ­ence in the Afghan gov­ern­ment with Rasheed, he rebuffs her inquiries. Ridi­cul­ing her for her lack of under­stand­ing, he scorn­ful­ly remarks that she pos­sess­es the intel­lect of a child. Rasheed’s dis­dain for Mari­am extends beyond ver­bal abuse. Mari­am endures mul­ti­ple mis­car­riages and increas­ing­ly bru­tal beat­ings from Rasheed. In April, mil­i­tary air­craft fly over their dwelling accom­pa­nied by deaf­en­ing explo­sions. Turn­ing on the radio, they anx­ious­ly await updates on the dis­tur­bances. After sev­er­al tense days, they learn that the Afghan com­mu­nists have top­pled the gov­ern­ment, lead­ing to the pres­i­den­t’s exe­cu­tion. The new regime pledges to uphold Islam­ic and demo­c­ra­t­ic val­ues. Ini­tial­ly, Rasheed appears opti­mistic about these changes, antic­i­pat­ing them to work in his favor. How­ev­er, his opti­mism is short-lived. Before long, he begins find­ing fault with Mari­am’s culi­nary skills. His dis­ap­point­ment peaks one night when he com­pels Mari­am to chew peb­bles due to under­cooked rice.

Chapter 16

Laila, daugh­ter of Fari­ba and Hakim, was born amidst the com­mu­nist rev­o­lu­tion in April 1978. By 1987, she shares a pro­found bond with her friend Tariq, who tem­porar­i­ly departs Kab­ul to vis­it his uncle. Fari­ba, Laila’s moth­er or “Mam­my,” play­ful­ly teas­es her for miss­ing Tariq, a boy with a bod­i­ly hand­i­cap. Laila empathizes with her father, a schol­ar, who fre­quent­ly endures Farib­a’s anger for neglect­ing house­hold chores. Once, Fari­ba was cap­ti­vat­ed by Hakim’s mild and schol­ar­ly nature. Hakim, or “Babi” to Laila, advised her to pri­or­i­tize edu­ca­tion over ear­ly mat­ri­mo­ny. Laila’s instruc­tor and peers aren’t man­dat­ed to veil them­selves, a sign of gen­der par­i­ty under com­mu­nist rule. They study the Sovi­et Union, acclaimed as the hap­pi­est nation glob­al­ly, and are encour­aged to report any poten­tial adult rebels. When Mam­my neglects to fetch her post-school, Laila strolls home with her elder pals, Hasi­na and Giti, who play­ful­ly tease her about her sen­ti­ments for Tariq. Lat­er by her­self, she remains obliv­i­ous to an elder­ly man near Rasheed the cob­bler’s abode until the lad, Khadim, threat­ens her with his firearm.

Chapter 17

Khadim, an eleven-year-old lad, tor­ments Laila in Tariq’s absence, label­ing her “Yel­low Hair” and declar­ing he will wed her one day. One time, he squirts Laila with a water gun filled with urine, incit­ing onlook­ers to mock. After endur­ing this shame, Laila has­tens home, wash­es her locks repeat­ed­ly to elim­i­nate the foul smell, and finds solace in her mum’s cham­ber. Her mum, Mam­my, oscil­lates between good and bad days due to her sons’ par­tic­i­pa­tion in the Afghani anti-com­mu­nist resis­tance. Present­ly, she is in a despon­dent state, with all drapes drawn shut and her­self cocooned in cov­ers. On learn­ing about Khadim’s mis­deeds, Mam­my pon­ders con­vers­ing with his moth­er. Laila then ques­tions her mom about neglect­ing to col­lect her from school, where Mam­my apol­o­gizes and assures Laila it won’t reoc­cur the fol­low­ing day. Mean­while, Babi recites a verse on Kab­ul as he arranges his books.

Chapter 18

After numer­ous weeks, Laila is fret­ful as Tariq has not returned from his expe­di­tion. Nev­er­the­less, she glimpses a famil­iar glow flick­er­ing in his quar­ters, indi­cat­ing his come­back. She vis­its him the sub­se­quent day and receives a warm wel­come from his prog­en­i­tors who lov­ing­ly per­ceive her as their “daugh­ter-in-law.” Dur­ing a vis­it to the bus sta­tion, Laila and Tariq encounter Khadim. Though unin­ten­tion­al, Laila divulges Khadim’s trans­gres­sions. Tariq reacts fierce­ly, assail­ing Khadim with his pros­thet­ic limb, guar­an­tee­ing he won’t has­sle Laila again. Lat­er that evening, while Laila is study­ing with Babi’s guid­ance, an unfore­seen knock­ing at the entrance inter­rupts them.

Chapter 19

A uni­formed man arrives to con­verse with Laila’s par­ents, incit­ing a com­mo­tion as Mam­my breaks down in tears. The ensu­ing day, the local women vis­it Laila’s home­stead to aid with the griev­ing cus­toms. Among the guests is Mari­am, the shoe­mak­er’s spouse, who comes to offer con­do­lences. Despite ful­fill­ing her duties as a child, Laila strug­gles to con­nect with her moth­er’s anguish. She has no per­son­al mem­o­ries of her sib­lings, Ahmad and Noor, view­ing them more as leg­endary fig­ures than as kin. In her per­cep­tion, Tariq is the one she deems as a sibling.

Chapter 20

Mam­my sel­dom leaves her bed, with Laila assum­ing the roles of care­giv­er and home­mak­er. Mam­my’s sole refuge from her grief is recount­ing anec­dotes of her sons’ hero­ism, even assert­ing that Com­man­der Ahmad Shah Mas­soud sup­pli­cat­ed over their remains. Anx­ious for her moth­er’s well-being, Laila strives to elim­i­nate haz­ardous items from their dwelling. Unsuc­cess­ful in locat­ing Babi’s razors, she dis­clos­es her con­cerns with her father, who offers no aid. Mam­my con­fess­es to con­tem­plat­ing sui­cide upon dis­cov­er­ing her son’s demise. Nonethe­less, she yearns to wit­ness their mis­sion accom­plished — the oust­ing of the Sovi­ets from Kabul.

Chapter 21

Babi sets out on a jour­ney with Laila and Tariq, uti­liz­ing the excur­sion to enlight­en them on their nation’s his­to­ry of inva­sions. Their des­ti­na­tion is unveiled to be the Bamiyan Val­ley, where Babi moti­vates them to scale the Bud­dha stat­ues along­side him. He divulges that the area pre­vi­ous­ly served as a hub for Bud­dhism until it fell under Islam­ic domin­ion. In a pri­vate moment with Laila, Babi con­fess­es his griev­ing for her sib­lings dif­fers from Mam­my’s. He unveils his aspi­ra­tion of relo­cat­ing the fam­i­ly to Amer­i­ca, a notion Laila com­pre­hends Mam­my won’t enter­tain, as she is devot­ed to her son’s cause and won’t for­sake Afghanistan until it attains lib­er­ty. Laila, for her part, refrains from inform­ing Babi she would­n’t desire to depart Afghanistan either, espe­cial­ly if it entailed aban­don­ing Tariq. Sev­er­al months lat­er, Babi announced a peace agree­ment has been reached in Gene­va between com­mu­nist Rus­sia and the Afghan regime, indi­cat­ing the Sovi­ets’ immi­nent depar­ture from Afghanistan. Mam­my, how­ev­er, refrains from rejoic­ing prematurely.

Chapter 22

At the out­set of 1989, Laila’s fam­i­ly and Tariq wit­ness the con­clu­sive exit of the Sovi­ets from their metrop­o­lis. Tariq, who recent­ly lost his uncle and whose father suf­fered a car­diac arrest, is con­va­lesc­ing from his per­son­al adver­si­ties. He and Laila attend a film togeth­er where, dur­ing a moment of spousal bliss, Tariq men­tions he har­bors no inten­tions of ever mar­ry­ing. Laila, inter­nal­ly crushed, agrees. As the on-screen cou­ple indulges in a fer­vent smooch, Laila real­izes she and Tariq are observ­ing each oth­er. Curi­ous, she con­tem­plates how it would feel to exchange a kiss with Tariq. Emerg­ing into the night from the cin­e­ma, Laila expe­ri­ences a feel­ing of relief know­ing she won’t con­front Tariq’s gaze under the harsh daylight.

Chapter 23

By April 1992, when Laila turns four­teen, the Sovi­et Union is crum­bling with nations like Lithua­nia, Esto­nia, and Ukraine assert­ing inde­pen­dence. The over­throw of the com­mu­nist regime in Afghanistan has prompt­ed the sol­diers’ return home, includ­ing those who fought along­side Ahmad and Noor. Mam­my’s mood bright­ens, and she dis­cards her mourn­ing gar­ments for more vibrant hues. She orches­trates a neigh­bor­hood fes­tiv­i­ty and warns Laila to safe­guard her rep­u­ta­tion con­cern­ing Tariq. Although slight­ly annoyed, Laila com­pre­hends her moth­er’s appre­hen­sion. Her feel­ings for Tariq have deep­ened, and even neigh­bors, like Rasheed, taunt them about their inti­ma­cy. Dur­ing the fes­tiv­i­ty, Laila learns that her friend Giti is soon to wed, while their mutu­al acquain­tance, Hasi­na, has already wed­ded and migrat­ed to Ger­many. Laila attempts to rein in her emo­tions for Tariq in front of her moth­er, yet can’t resist accom­pa­ny­ing him when he invites her to step away from the gath­er­ing. She reproves him about his smok­ing habits, but Tariq remains indif­fer­ent, believ­ing it enhances his allure to girls. He con­fess­es to rel­ish­ing the rumors cir­cu­lat­ing about him and Laila, assur­ing her she’s the sole object of his inter­est. How­ev­er, their inti­mate con­ver­sa­tion is abrupt­ly inter­rupt­ed by the sounds of a scuf­fle at the gathering.

Chapter 24

The nov­el nation­al lead­er­ship coun­cil is entan­gled in dis­agree­ments, push­ing Kab­ul back into tur­moil. Laila and her fam­i­ly endure night­ly fear as rock­ets pour down on the city. Each explo­sion that spares their dwelling also brings the chill­ing chance of harm­ing Tariq, Laila’s com­pan­ion. The armed con­fronta­tion briefly halts for dawn prayer before resum­ing. Tariq, equipped with a firearm pur­chased to pro­tect Laila, escorts her every­where as the city’s ter­rain con­stant­ly shifts under var­i­ous war­lords’ domin­ion. Despite her dis­like for firearms, Laila val­ues Tariq’s courage. She wel­comes Tariq’s affec­tion and dis­re­gards soci­etal stan­dards as their con­nec­tion evolves into love. The con­flict between the Pash­tun and Haz­ara groups in West Kab­ul has inten­si­fied and turned bru­tal, with abduc­tions, sex­u­al assaults, and pub­lic exe­cu­tions becom­ing com­mon­place. Laila’s par­ents, Babi and Mam­my, argue about leav­ing Kab­ul, but Mam­my is res­olute about remain­ing. Wor­ried about Laila’s safe­ty, Babi with­draws her from school. The loss of Laila’s friend Giti impacts her more deeply than the demise of her scarce­ly known brothers.

Chapter 25

Tariq revealed to Laila in August that his fam­i­ly must depart Afghanistan due to his father’s fail­ing health and his moth­er’s advanc­ing age. Laila, over­whelmed with fury, strikes Tariq, but he endeav­ors to calm her, lead­ing to inti­mate moments between them that leave Laila with a sense of guilt. Tariq sug­gests leav­ing Afghanistan togeth­er and even express­es his readi­ness to seek Laila’s hand in mar­riage from Hakim. How­ev­er, Laila declines his pro­pos­al as she can­not desert her par­ents who are unwill­ing to flee Afghanistan. She ulti­mate­ly ends the dis­cus­sion by shut­ting the door on Tariq, but he per­sists in plead­ing with her from the oppo­site side.

Chapter 26

As the con­flict approach­es, Babi and Mam­my per­sist in their talks about escap­ing Kab­ul. Two weeks have passed since Tariq’s depar­ture, and Laila’s heartache is grad­u­al­ly dimin­ish­ing. She grap­ples with rec­on­cil­ing her emo­tions about their shared roman­tic encounter as her upbring­ing con­demns pre­mar­i­tal inti­ma­cy as sin­ful. Nev­er­the­less, she cher­ish­es their time togeth­er as some­thing love­ly and just, mem­o­ries that linger with her for years. When Babi informs Laila that Mam­my has final­ly assent­ed to leav­ing Kab­ul, Laila wres­tles with mixed sen­ti­ments about the tim­ing but antic­i­pates encoun­ter­ing Tariq’s fam­i­ly in Peshawar. As they pre­pare to depart, Laila day­dreams of reunit­ing with Tariq. Her rever­ies are abrupt­ly shat­tered by yells and an explo­sion, which pro­pels her against a wall and caus­es her to lose consciousness.

Chapter 27

Rashid and Mari­am res­cue Laila from the wreck­age, tend­ing to her wounds. Laila suf­fers from hear­ing loss in her left ear fol­low­ing the trag­ic event that claimed her par­ents’ lives. Mari­am cares for Laila, sup­ply­ing her with pain relief and clean­ing up after her fre­quent nau­sea. Grad­u­al­ly, Laila’s health begins to improve. Hear­ing Laila express guilt for sur­viv­ing the explo­sion, Mari­am is remind­ed of her own guilt over Nana’s pass­ing. A month after los­ing her par­ents, Laila is vis­it­ed by a man named Abdul Sharif, whom she claims not to recognize.

Chapter 28

Abdul Sharif, hav­ing trav­eled from a Peshawar hos­pi­tal, con­fides in Laila a trag­ic sto­ry regard­ing her friend, Tariq. A rock­et had struck Tariq’s trans­porta­tion to the Peshawar bor­der, inflict­ing severe injuries upon him. Abdul Sharif, who was also unwell, hap­pened to be the occu­pant of the adja­cent bed in the hos­pi­tal. Tariq was now miss­ing his oth­er leg and fight­ing for his life. The men shared per­son­al anec­dotes dur­ing their stay, with Tariq fre­quent­ly men­tion­ing Laila. He tasked Abdul Sharif with check­ing on her upon his return to Kab­ul. How­ev­er, one night, Abdul Sharif was roused by a com­mo­tion around Tariq’s bed. By morn­ing, Tariq had van­ished. The news of Tariq’s demise sends Laila spi­ral­ing back to the moment she was informed of her broth­ers, Ahmad and Noor’s deaths. Laila could­n’t shake the feel­ing that this might be pay­back for her inad­e­quate mourn­ing of her brothers.

Chapter 29

Mari­am grows increas­ing­ly con­cerned that Rasheed intends to pro­pose to Laila. She implores Rasheed not to pro­ceed, high­light­ing Laila’s ten­der age of only four­teen. Nev­er­the­less, Rasheed per­sists, stat­ing he can­not con­tin­ue sup­port­ing Laila with­out mar­riage. He asserts that Laila must either depart and face dan­ger or work in a broth­el if she refus­es to assist with house­hold chores. Mari­am, left with no choice, presents Rasheed’s pro­pos­al to Laila that very evening. To Mari­am’s sur­prise, Laila agrees imme­di­ate­ly, with­out wait­ing for morning.

Chapter 30

Rasheed and Laila plan their future togeth­er. When Laila grows rest­less, Rasheed reacts vio­lent­ly. Laila ini­tial­ly intend­ed to depart for Peshawar before Abdul Shar­if’s arrival, but her plans altered. She is in the ear­ly stages of preg­nan­cy and must wed Rasheed to avoid rais­ing sus­pi­cion. The wed­ding cer­e­mo­ny is sol­em­nized, and the new­ly­weds spend their ini­tial night as a cou­ple. After ensur­ing that Rasheed is asleep, Laila stains the sheets with her own blood, a ges­ture to con­firm her virginity.

Chapter 31

Mari­am man­ages to evade Laila through­out the day. How­ev­er, Rasheed decrees a joint fam­i­ly din­ner, where he dom­i­nates the qui­et meal­time with his deroga­to­ry com­ments. He insults Mari­am, label­ing her a hara­mi, a term that con­tin­ues to sting her even in her thir­ties. Rasheed fur­ther maligns Laila’s par­ents for their per­ceived lenien­cy. He pro­hibits Laila from leav­ing the house unac­com­pa­nied and instructs her to wear a bur­ka in pub­lic. The women are cau­tioned against any wrong­do­ings, with Mari­am entrust­ed with ensur­ing Laila’s com­pli­ance. When alone, Laila cau­tious­ly ini­ti­ates a dia­logue with Mari­am. Mem­o­ries flood back to Mari­am of a young Laila play­ing in their neigh­bor­hood. Laila desires to dis­cuss Rasheed’s remarks. How­ev­er, Mari­am asserts that Laila must shoul­der her share of the house­hold respon­si­bil­i­ties; Mari­am refus­es to be a ser­vant in her own home. Laila apol­o­gizes and endeav­ors to express grat­i­tude for Mari­am’s care. Mari­am retorts that she would not have assist­ed had she known Laila was to become Rasheed’s wife. Laila breaks into tears, but Mari­am remains res­olute, assign­ing her tasks for half of the house­hold duties.

Chapter 32

Laila dis­clos­es her preg­nan­cy to Rasheed, who hopes for a son. Dur­ing din­ner, Rasheed shares the news with Mari­am, caus­ing her vis­i­ble dis­tress, which Laila notices. Laila tries to cre­ate a con­nec­tion with Mari­am, but Mari­am is sole­ly con­cerned about the poten­tial impact on Laila’s house­hold respon­si­bil­i­ties. Laila believes that Mari­am and the baby are the only inno­cent ones. The con­flict in Kab­ul con­tin­ues, but Rasheed assures Laila about her safe­ty. As the year 1992 draws to a close, Mari­am’s atti­tude towards Laila becomes more hos­tile. Laila hides her ini­tial dis­agree­ment with Mari­am from Rasheed, which orig­i­nat­ed from an accu­sa­tion of Laila con­ceal­ing a kitchen tool. Their con­ver­sa­tions soon turned sour, lead­ing Laila to retreat to her room. It is dur­ing the night that she feels the baby’s ini­tial movements.

Chapter 33

When Rasheed accom­pa­nies Laila to the hos­pi­tal, Mari­am watch­es atten­tive­ly. Upon his return, his demeanor has changed. He neglects help­ing Laila with the new­born, dis­ap­point­ed that his desire for a son has not been ful­filled. Grow­ing quick­ly impa­tient with the baby’s inces­sant cry­ing, Rasheed blames Mari­am for not inter­ven­ing, despite her lack of expe­ri­ence with chil­dren. Mari­am sym­pa­thizes with Laila and acknowl­edges her embrac­ing of mater­nal respon­si­bil­i­ties. Dur­ing a heat­ed argu­ment with Laila, Rasheed’s anger shifts towards Mari­am. He believes Mari­am has influ­enced Laila against him as Laila refus­es to share his bed. Laila steps in, urg­ing him not to harm Mari­am. Lat­er that night, Mari­am finds Laila asleep on the kitchen floor. Upon notic­ing the baby is awake, she cra­dles her until she falls asleep. Mari­am remains awake until dawn, the child peace­ful­ly sleep­ing in her arms.

Chapter 34

Laila trea­sures the moments she spends with Aziza, her daugh­ter, and cau­tious­ly avoids dis­cussing Aziza­’s bio­log­i­cal father in Rasheed’s pres­ence. This behav­ior height­ens Rasheed’s sus­pi­cions, lead­ing him to inquire about Laila’s rela­tion­ship with Tariq, remind­ing her of the rumors he has heard. One day, Laila dis­cov­ers a stack of baby clothes out­side her room. She express­es grat­i­tude to Mari­am for the unex­pect­ed gift, trig­ger­ing a con­ver­sa­tion about cook­ing. Appre­cia­tive of Laila’s sup­port the pre­vi­ous night, Mari­am fore­warns Laila that she will soon grow accus­tomed to the bru­tal­i­ty, much like her­self, pre­dict­ing that Rasheed’s fury will even­tu­al­ly turn towards Laila as well. They resume their chores and pre­pare tea, where Laila real­izes Mari­am’s demeanor towards her has softened.

Chapter 35

Mari­am and Laila forge a strong bond, with Mari­am grow­ing fond of Laila’s daugh­ter Aziza, mark­ing the first gen­uine rela­tion­ship she has encoun­tered. The sit­u­a­tion in Kab­ul dete­ri­o­rates, forc­ing Rasheed to remain indoors as vio­lence esca­lates. Dis­play­ing his aggres­sion, he fires his gun out­side their res­i­dence, intim­i­dat­ing any­one who dares to intrude. He also rebuffs Aziza­’s attempts to con­nect with him. While car­ing for the child with Laila, Mari­am opens up about her past to Laila, recount­ing her ear­ly mar­riage to Rasheed, the mis­car­riages, and his chang­ing demeanor. In return, Laila dis­clos­es that Rasheed is not Aziza­’s bio­log­i­cal father and admits to steal­ing from Rasheed’s purse in secret since Aziza­’s birth. She shares her plan to flee Kab­ul with Aziza, invit­ing Mari­am to accom­pa­ny them. Reflect­ing on her tumul­tuous three years in Kab­ul, Mari­am con­tem­plates the per­ils of love, won­der­ing if it is part of God’s plan for her to begin anew with the two indi­vid­u­als she holds dear.

Chapter 36

Mari­am and Laila devise an escape plan, need­ing a man to pro­vide cov­er due to soci­etal restric­tions. With assis­tance from a man for their bus fare, they trav­el with his fam­i­ly. How­ev­er, they are inter­cept­ed by guards and tak­en to the author­i­ties. Each under­goes sep­a­rate inter­ro­ga­tions, where Laila is remind­ed of the ille­gal­i­ty of their escape scheme. She attempts to jus­ti­fy their actions by describ­ing Rasheed’s abu­sive con­duct, but the offi­cer dis­miss­es it as a pri­vate mat­ter. Upon being returned home, they face ret­ri­bu­tion from Rasheed. He lash­es out at Laila, con­fines her and Aziza in a room, and then directs his fury at Mari­am, lock­ing her in a shed after­ward. Fear­ing for Mari­am and her child, Laila pleads with Rasheed for water for Aziza. She watch­es Aziza vig­i­lant­ly for any signs of dis­tress. Ulti­mate­ly, Rasheed opens the door and threat­ens to harm Mari­am, then Aziza, and final­ly Laila if they try to escape once more. As a part­ing shot, he kicks Laila before leaving.

Chapter 37

By 1994, the Tal­iban, con­sist­ing of Pash­tu migrants, seized con­trol of Kan­da­har. Fast for­ward two years, and they cap­tured Kab­ul. Rasheed took his fam­i­ly to a pub­lic gath­er­ing at Pash­tunistan Square where two sib­lings were exe­cut­ed for their com­mu­nist beliefs and infi­deli­ty. Sub­se­quent­ly, the city was enveloped with new reg­u­la­tions, imple­ment­ing Sharia law. Rasheed expressed con­tent­ment as his per­son­al rules gov­ern­ing his wives were inte­grat­ed into law, with death as the con­se­quence of any transgressions.

Chapter 38

Laila is grate­ful her father can­not wit­ness Kab­ul’s meta­mor­pho­sis. With the uni­ver­si­ty shut­tered, enter­tain­ment venues razed, and all books except the Koran incin­er­at­ed, she is dis­mayed. Rasheed’s plea­sure in the ongo­ing pun­ish­ments and exe­cu­tions dis­gusts her. In response to her repul­sion, he only threat­ens her. Aware that Aziza is not his bio­log­i­cal child, Rasheed con­tin­u­al­ly reminds Laila that their sur­vival is sole­ly due to him. One day, Laila takes a spoke from an aban­doned bicy­cle, con­sid­er­ing an abor­tion. Yet, she finds her­self unable to ter­mi­nate a life, espe­cial­ly that of an inno­cent like Aziza and Mariam.

Chapter 39

Mari­am rush­es to escort Laila to a hos­pi­tal, recent­ly des­ig­nat­ed for women-only treat­ment. How­ev­er, the hos­pi­tal staff is over­whelmed, and a mul­ti­tude of peo­ple are clam­or­ing for med­ical aid. Laila neces­si­tates surgery, but the hos­pi­tal lacks anes­the­sia. Due to time con­straints, Mari­am is unable to pro­cure the need­ed drugs, lead­ing to Laila endur­ing a cesare­an sec­tion with­out any pain relief.

Chapter 40

Zal­mai, the son of Laila and Rasheed, is now two years old. Rasheed show­ers him with lav­ish gifts like a tele­vi­sion, despite their finan­cial hard­ships. To alle­vi­ate their mon­e­tary strug­gles, Rasheed sug­gests send­ing Aziza, their daugh­ter, to beg on the streets. Laila vehe­ment­ly oppos­es this pro­pos­al, lead­ing her to strike Rasheed. In retal­i­a­tion, Rasheed threat­ens Laila by putting a gun in her mouth. To avoid trou­ble with the Tal­iban, Laila and Mari­am con­ceal the new tele­vi­sion set in an exca­va­tion they made in their yard.

Chapter 41

Rasheed secures a job at a din­er but los­es it short­ly there­after. He resorts to ped­dling house­hold goods, sav­ing only Zal­mai from his phys­i­cal out­bursts. Con­cerned about the dwin­dling food sup­ply and the threat of star­va­tion, Laila wor­ries for her chil­dren. How­ev­er, Mari­am devis­es a plan to seek help from her father. They man­age to use a satel­lite phone for five min­utes, enabling Mari­am to con­tact the may­or of her birth­place. Recall­ing her rejec­tion of Jalil when he vis­it­ed her in Kab­ul thir­teen years ear­li­er, Mari­am real­izes how he was bid­ding her a final farewell upon dis­cov­er­ing he had passed away in 1987.

Chapter 42

The Bamiyan Bud­dhas suf­fered immense destruc­tion caused by the Tal­iban, awak­en­ing mem­o­ries in Laila of her vis­it to the site with Tariq and Babi. Faced with their dire sit­u­a­tion, Laila and Mari­am make the tough choice to send Aziza to an orphan­age, advis­ing her to con­ceal the truth about her father’s demise. The orphan­age’s head offers solace to a tear­ful Laila, attribut­ing her hard­ships to the Tal­iban’s rule. Despite the dan­gers, Laila vis­its Aziza reg­u­lar­ly, much to Rasheed’s irri­ta­tion due to her fre­quent absences. At times, Laila encoun­ters and endures assaults from Tal­iban sol­diers. Yet, when she man­ages to evade these threats, she cher­ish­es her moments play­ing with Aziza. As Rasheed starts a job as a door­man, he assures Laila that Aziza can return home once he has saved enough mon­ey. One sig­nif­i­cant day, Zal­mai alerts them of a guest. Upon rec­og­niz­ing the man at the door, Laila races into Tariq’s wait­ing embrace.

Chapter 43

Upstairs with Zal­mai, Mari­am grap­ples with recent events. Her sus­pi­cion about a famil­iar face from Rasheed’s work­place trans­forms into cer­tain­ty. She becomes con­vinced that the man is Abdul Sharif, spec­u­lat­ing that Rasheed pos­si­bly bribed him to inform Laila about Tariq’s alleged death.

Chapter 44

Tariq divulges his post-Kab­ul life sto­ry to Laila, recount­ing his hard­ships after los­ing both his par­ents and fac­ing time behind bars. Cur­rent­ly unmar­ried and resid­ing in Pak­istan, he is already aware of the fate of Laila’s par­ents. Laila shares Abdul Shar­if’s mes­sage with him and awk­ward­ly apol­o­gizes for her mar­riage to Rasheed. Tariq, how­ev­er, empathizes with her cir­cum­stances and har­bors no ill feel­ings. Laila then reveals Aziza­’s exis­tence to Tariq, who eager­ly promis­es to return and meet his child. Mean­while, Zal­mai informs Rasheed of a man’s vis­it to Laila.

Chapter 45

As Rasheed brings Zal­mai upstairs, Laila and Mari­am brace them­selves for his wrath. Sud­den­ly, Rasheed erupts in anger towards Laila, phys­i­cal­ly assault­ing her with his belt. Despite brave­ly resist­ing, Laila finds her­self in a per­ilous sit­u­a­tion with Rasheed’s hands around her neck. Rec­og­niz­ing Laila’s immi­nent dan­ger, Mari­am heads to the shed with a surge of deter­mi­na­tion. Though Rasheed has robbed her of her youth, Mari­am refus­es to let him claim Laila’s life. With new­found strength, Mari­am con­fronts Rasheed with a shov­el, dri­ving him away from Laila. Recall­ing a gun she had come across in Rasheed’s pos­ses­sion, Mari­am strikes again, deter­mined — Rasheed must meet his end.

Chapter 46

Upon regain­ing con­scious­ness after strug­gling to breathe, Laila finds Mari­am wield­ing a shov­el and Rasheed life­less. Togeth­er, they move Rasheed’s deceased body to the shed. Mari­am con­soles Laila as they con­tem­plate their future with the chil­dren and Tariq. Bewil­dered by Mari­am’s demeanor dur­ing their final inter­ac­tions, Laila deceives Zal­mai regard­ing his father’s absence. In the morn­ing, Mari­am insists that Laila vis­it Aziza. Alarmed by Mari­am’s inten­tions, Laila objects vehe­ment­ly. Despite their dis­agree­ment, Laila fails to dis­suade Mari­am from shoul­der­ing the blame for Rasheed’s demise alone. Send­ing Zal­mai with a kiss for Aziza, Mari­am bids farewell to Laila and Zal­mai as they depart, unknow­ing­ly for the last time.

Chapter 47

The Tal­iban incar­cer­ates Mari­am in the Walay­at wom­en’s prison, deny­ing her any vis­i­tors. Con­fined with five women and four chil­dren, all impris­oned for “run­ning away,” they endure food scarci­ty. One inmate received a five-year sen­tence for attempt­ing to elope with a mul­lah’s son, while the man was released. Mari­am’s brief tri­al, devoid of legal rep­re­sen­ta­tion, last­ed a mere fif­teen min­utes. Although she con­fessed to Rasheed’s mur­der, her defense cit­ing pro­tec­tion for Laila was­n’t deemed cred­i­ble with­out cor­rob­o­ra­tion — a wom­an’s tes­ti­mo­ny alone lacked weight. The elder­ly judge, cog­nizant of Rasheed’s bru­tal­i­ty, par­doned Mari­am yet sen­tenced her to death. Mari­am spends her final day watch­ing chil­dren fish by the riv­er from her cell win­dow, rem­i­nis­cent of her fish­ing days with her father. On the morn­ing of her exe­cu­tion, she walks to the sta­di­um along­side a Tal­iban sol­dier, acknowl­edg­ing her fear, and faces a vast audi­ence of men await­ing her demise. In her last moments, Mari­am seeks Allah’s for­give­ness, reflect­ing on the Quran.

Chapter 48

Set­tled in Mur­ree, Tariq and Laila unite in mar­riage. Tariq secures a job at a hotel, with Laila assist­ing in room upkeep. Laila dis­clos­es to Aziza that Tariq is her bio­log­i­cal father, assur­ing her of his benev­o­lence and com­mit­ment. Though Zal­mai, nurs­ing resent­ment towards Tariq and miss­ing his father, may even­tu­al­ly over­come the pain of Rasheed’s absence. Plagued by night­mares, Aziza and Laila rem­i­nisce about Mari­am and their Kab­ul past.

Chapter 49

In Sep­tem­ber, Tariq shares news of Mas­soud’s demise with Laila. A com­mo­tion in their hotel lob­by draws their atten­tion as a crowd wit­ness­es a plane crash­ing into the sec­ond tow­er of the World Trade Cen­ter on TV. Sub­se­quent­ly, U.S. Pres­i­dent, George W. Bush, declares war on Afghanistan due to the Tal­iban’s refusal to dis­close Osama bin Laden’s where­abouts, sus­pect­ed in plan­ning the Sep­tem­ber 11th, 2001 attacks. Laila wit­ness­es the dai­ly bomb­ings of her home­land by the U.S., spark­ing a dis­agree­ment with Tariq who sees poten­tial pos­i­tives in the sit­u­a­tion. Hav­ing expe­ri­enced Kab­ul’s vio­lence post-Tariq’s depar­ture, Laila, under­stand­ing his per­spec­tive, can­not wish such fate even upon her persecutors.

Chapter 50

By mid-2002, Afghanistan wit­nessed a tran­si­tion­al phase as the Tal­iban lost con­trol over major cities and an inter­im pres­i­dent assumed office. Despite con­tent­ment in Mur­ree, Laila voic­es her desire to return to Kab­ul to Tariq. Their jour­ney entails a stop in Her­at, where Laila leaves Tariq and the chil­dren at a local inn while she jour­neys to Gul Daman. Here, she locates the res­i­dence of Mul­lah Faizul­lah, her for­mer tutor now deceased. Meet­ing his son, Hamza, she recounts Mari­am’s expe­ri­ences and fate. Hamza reveals his father’s regret over Mari­am’s forced mar­riage to Jalil Khan. He escorts Laila to the kol­ba where Mari­am once resided with Nana, evok­ing emo­tion­al trib­utes to Mari­am’s ear­ly life. Before part­ing, Hamza presents Laila with a box entrust­ed by Jalil to Mul­lah Faizul­lah, con­tain­ing a let­ter to Mari­am, a nos­tal­gic VHS tape of “Pinoc­chio,” and a pouch. Jalil’s let­ter seeks Mari­am’s for­give­ness for his past wrongs and dis­clos­es his inten­tion to bestow her with his prop­er­ty pro­ceeds. Over­whelmed, Laila con­fides in Tariq about the box’s con­tents and breaks down in his embrace.

Chapter 51

As the Kab­ul Riv­er swells with rain, Laila observes her chil­dren exult­ing in the mud and water. Cel­e­brat­ing Aziza­’s tenth birth­day at the cin­e­ma, Laila and Aziza com­mem­o­rate each dawn with prayers for Mari­am. Long­ing for her par­ents’ pres­ence to wit­ness Kab­ul’s trans­for­ma­tion, Laila and Tariq con­tribute to the orphan­age’s ren­o­va­tion, where Laila helps teach at the school. Referred to affec­tion­ate­ly as “Moth­er” by some stu­dents dur­ing their dai­ly walks, thoughts of Mari­am per­sist in Laila’s mind, with a keen desire to locate her final rest­ing place. Expect­ing anoth­er child, Laila already decid­ed on a name in case of a girl’s arrival.