A Thousand Splendid Suns

There was a leafless tree he climbed every day, where he straddled a branch and watched the refugees lying about in the sun, the ...

one or maybe two months' apartment rent." The shopkeeper gave him a bus ticket, Tariq said, and the address of a street corner n ...

Tariq wouldn't say much about his years in prison save that he'd learned to speak Urdu there. When Laila asked, he gave an impat ...

prison has a man like Salim, Tariq said. There was always someone who was cunning and connected, who worked the system and found ...

against the wall. "I thought you were dead," Laila said. "I know. You told me." Laila's voice broke. She had to clear her throat ...

"So is she. You'll see." "I'll count the minutes." Almost ten years had passed since they had last seen each other. Laila's mind ...

stay." Tariq nodded. "He works from noon to eight. Come back tomorrow afternoon. I'll take you to Aziza." "I'm not afraid of him ...

Mariam was upstairs, playing with Mariam," Zalmai said. "And your mother?" "She was...She was downstairs, talking to that ma ...

before it was replaced by something hateful. Rasheed swung the belt again. This time, Laila shielded herself with a forearm and ...

on Rasheed's cheek, blood down his neck, on his shirt. He turned around, all snarling teeth and blazing eyes. They crashed to th ...

the shovel. But in Rasheed's eyes she saw murder for them both. And so Mariam raised the shovel high, raised it as high as she c ...

Laila aila was aware of the face over her, all teeth and tobacco and foreboding eyes. She was dimly aware, too, of Mariam, a ...

A groan came out of her. "Oh," she said, tremulously, barely able to make a voice, "Oh, Mariam." Laila paced, moaning and bangi ...

"There is a way," she said, "and I just have to find it." "We have to leave! We can't stay here," Laila said in a broken, husky ...

"Maybe I can say them with you tonight." "You can't say them like he can." She squeezed his little shoulder. Kissed the nape of ...

buckle. Wincing, she quietly left the bedroom. In Mariam's room, the light was a shade darker than gray, the kind of light Laila ...

"They will. Sooner or later. They're bloodhounds." Mariam's voice was low, cautioning; it made Laila's promises sound fantastica ...

"Kiss Aziza for me," she said. "Tell her she is the noor of my eyes and the sultan of my heart. Will you do that for me?" Laila ...

Mariam ack in a kolba, it seemed, after all these years. The Walayat women's prison was a drab, square shaped building in Sh ...

share their food with her. The most avid was Naghma, who was always hugging her elbows and following Mariam everywhere she went. ...