A Thousand Splendid Suns

whooshing in and out of her nose, she wondered, waiting for a subtle faltering, a revealing irregularity, that would betray her ...

APRIL 1992 hree years passed. In that time, Tariq's father had a series of strokes. They left him with a clumsy left hand an ...

faction, who had a reputation for shifting allegiances. The intense, surly Gulbuddin Hekmatyar, leader of the Hezb-e-Islami fact ...

"How is Tariq?" "His father's been ill," Laila said "How old is he now anyway?" "I don't know. Sixties, I guess." "I meant Tariq ...

not very convincing. "He's like a brother to me," she added, misguidedly. And she knew, even before a cloud passed over Mammy's ...

"Good!" Mammy said. "That's resolved, then. Now, where is Hakim? Where, oh where, is that sweet little husband of mine?" It was ...

Giti was beside Laila now, chopping cucumbers, with a dreamy, far off look on her face. Mammy was nearby, in her brilliant summe ...

The men filled their plates and glasses and took their meals to the yard. Once they had taken their share, the women and childre ...

"Bad for you," he said. "And it's not bad for you?" "I do it for the girls." "What girls?" He smirked. "They think it's sexy." " ...

"The empty headed girls who think you're sexy." "You know." "Know what?" "That I only have eyes for you." Laila swooned inside. ...

IT WAS DIZZYING HOW QUICKLY EVERYTHING UNRAVELED. The leadership council was formed prematurely. It elected Rabbani president. ...

t's the whistling," Laila said to Tariq, "the damn whistling, I hate more than anything" Tariq nodded knowingly. It wasn't s ...

it merely looked black and deadly. "I don't like it," she said. "Guns scare me." Tariq turned the magazine over in his hand "The ...

indulgence. So she let him kiss her, and when he pulled back she leaned in and kissedhim, heart pounding in her throat, her face ...

"Laila?" "Yes, Babi." "Pyramid. Area. Where are you?" "Sorry, Babi. I was, uh...Let's see. Pyramid. Pyramid. One third the area ...

aila could hardly move, as though cement had solidified in every one of her joints. There was a conversation going on, and L ...

extension of her, whose shadow sprung beside hers in every memory. How could he leave her? She slapped him. Then she slapped him ...

He began to say more, about going to a mosque, finding a mullah, a pair of witnesses, a quick nikka. ... But Laila was thinking ...

t was, by far, the hottest day of the year. The mountains trapped the bone scorching heat, stifled the city like smoke. Powe ...

remembered Then Babi was in the hallway, calling her name from the top of the stairs, asking her to come up quickly. "She's agre ...