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A Thousand Splendid Suns
experiences in Afghanistan. Persian literature is heavily based
INTR
INTRODUCTION
ODUCTION on poetry rather than novels; Hosseini grew up reading Rumi,
Hafez, and Omar Khayyám, and throughout the novel there are
BRIEF BIOGRAPHY OF KHALED HOSSEINI references to these and other classic Afghan poets such as
Khaled Hosseini was born to a diplomat and a Farsi and history Ustad Khalilluah Khalili, Nezami, and, of course, the 17th-
teacher. His family later moved to Paris for his father’s work, century Saib-e-Tabrizi poem that gives the book its title. In
and they were there when the Soviet Union invaded terms of the novel’s form, Hosseini was deeply influenced by
Afghanistan. When he was fifteen, his family came to the US as John Steinbeck’s The Grapes of Wrath, which he first read in high
asylum seekers and settled in California. Hosseini ultimately school and whose descriptions of the bleak lot of migrant
attended Santa Clara University and later medical school. After farmworkers reminded him of the plight of many Afghans.
becoming a bestselling author with the publication of The Kite However, at least some of the success of A Thousand Splendid
Runner, Hosseini quit his job as a doctor to write full-time. In Suns (and its forerunner) can be attributed to the fact that,
March 2003, he returned to Afghanistan and was compelled to before their publication, there had been few novels in the
write more about the experiences of Afghans under the Taliban. English-speaking world that dealt with Afghanistan, a literary
He is also a UN goodwill ambassador, and has established a gap Hosseini set out to fill.
nonprofit providing humanitarian assistance to Afghans. He
lives in Northern California.
KEY FACTS
HISTORICAL CONTEXT • Full Title: A Thousand Splendid Suns
The novel takes place over approximately forty years, from the • When Written: 2004-2007
early 1970s, when Mariam is a teenager, to 2003, when Laila is • Where Written: California
settled once again in Kabul with her family. Throughout this • When Published: 2007
time, Afghanistan was subjected to a series of violent, brutal • Literary Period: Contemporary
wars and numerous political coups. When the story opens,
• Genre: Novel
Afghanistan has recently undergone a bloodless coup in 1973.
In 1978, there is a Communist counter-coup, and the Soviet • Setting: Herat and Kabul, Afghanistan
Union invades in 1979. After battles with the Mujahideen, or • Climax: As Rasheed is preparing to choke Laila to death,
Islamic fighters supported by the United States, the Soviet Mariam kills him with a shovel—thus ensuring both her own
Union finally withdraws its last troops in 1989 and the death, but also a hopeful future for Laila and her family.
Mujahideen take over. After a decade of bloody infighting, the • Antagonist: Rasheed, Laila, and Mariam’s husband; the Taliban
Taliban seize control and establish peace but also an extremely • Point of View: The story is told in the third person, alternating
strict Shari’a law. Finally, the book ends during the American between Laila’s and Mariam’s point of view—the section and
occupation of Afghanistan following the events of September chapter divisions specify which one. The narrator never
11, 2001. Hosseini attempts to anchor the reader in this deviates from the perspective of each woman, but at times
complex history, by showing how specific historical events—the provides foreshadowing hints to the reader concerning what
departure of the Soviets from Kabul, for instance, or the arrival awaits the characters.
of the Taliban—impacts the lives of the characters. By
interweaving historical facts, often with dates and leaders’ EXTRA CREDIT
names included, with the fictional narrative, Hosseini helps to Poetry Slam Hosseini’s favorite book of all time is the collected
breathe life into what could be a confusing historical lesson for “Poets of Hafez,” a revered Persian poet, which he originally
an English-speaking audience. He also shows the extent to read as a schoolboy in Kabul.
which politics has impacted every Afghan person’s life over the
past several decades. Culture Shock When Hosseini arrived in California as a fifteen-
year-old, he only spoke a few words of English. Now, though, he
RELATED LITERARY WORKS finds English the most natural language in which to write.
Just before The Kite Runner was published, Hosseini went to
Kabul for the first time in 27 years. His first novel had focused
on male relationships in the expatriate Afghan community, but
this visit gave him the motivation to concentrate on women’s
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begs him not to, but Rasheed threatens to turn Laila out onto
PL
PLO
OT SUMMARY the streets. Laila agrees to wed Rasheed—she has become
pregnant with Tariq’s child, and knows this is the only way to
Part I of A Thousand Splendid Suns begins in the early 1970s,
save the baby and herself. Mariam despises Laila, and the two
when Mariam is a teenager living with her mother, Nana, in a
live together in constant tension and low-simmering hostility.
kolba or small hut outside of the city of Herat. We learn that
Not long afterward, a man named Abdul Sharif comes to the
Mariam is the illegitimate child or harami (“bastard”) of Nana
house and says he was in a hospital with Tariq, whose lorry
and Jalil, a wealthy cinema owner in Herat. Mariam is taught to
(truck) had been caught in crossfire on the way to Pakistan and
recite verses from the Koran by Mullah Faizullah, whom she
who was gravely wounded and, Abdul Sharif says, died.
looks up to and admires. Jalil comes to visit Mariam every week,
and though Nana tries to convince Mariam that Jalil is Rasheed is initially solicitous and adoring of Laila. After Laila
embarrassed by her and refuses to consider her a true member gives birth to a baby girl, Aziza, however, he grows once again
of his family, to Mariam, he can do no wrong. irritable and even violent, angry it was not a boy. At one point,
Laila tries to stop Rasheed from beating Mariam. This small act
One day, against Jalil’s wishes, Mariam descends the hill into
leads the tensions between the two women to cool, and after
Herat for the very first time in order to see him. She is told he
drinking several cups of chai together, they start to become
isn’t there, and after spending the entire night sleeping on his
close friends and allies rather than adversaries. Laila confides
stoop, his chauffeur brings her back to the kolba, though not
to Mariam that she has been stealing bit by bit from Rasheed
before she has a glimpse of Jalil looking down at her from the
and plans to escape to Pakistan in the spring. Together with
window. Upon their return, Mariam sees her mother hanging
Aziza, the two of them depart for the Kabul bus station and ask
from a rope. She feels desperately guilty, especially now that
a kind-looking man to pretend he’s their cousin accompanying
she knows Nana was right about Jalil. She loathes him even
them out of the city—the Mujahideen prevent women from
more once he marries her off to Rasheed, a shoe shop owner in
travelling alone. But the man betrays them, and Laila and
Kabul thirty years her senior.
Mariam are questioned before being taken back to Rasheed’s,
In Kabul, Mariam is astounded by the cosmopolitan where they are both beaten severely and locked into separate
atmosphere, though Rasheed makes her wear a burqa and rooms.
mainly stay within the home. Rasheed initially shows Mariam
The Taliban take control of Afghanistan shortly afterward, and
around the city and buys her gifts, but after she suffers multiple
begin to implement strict Shari’a, a strict set of religious laws
miscarriages he grows sullen and hostile, yelling at her and
that prevent women from working and severely restrict their
beating her.
freedom and mobility. Around the same time, Laila realizes she
Part II shifts to the perspective of Laila, who is growing up in is pregnant with Rasheed’s child. She comes close to aborting
Kabul not far from Rasheed and Mariam’s house, but who is the child on her own, but ends up deciding that she cannot
getting an education thanks to her progressive father, Babi. But accept what the Mujahideen had accepted—that sometimes in
Mammy, her mother, is depressed and unable to take care of war innocent life must be taken. She gives birth to a boy, Zalmai,
Laila because she so misses her two sons, Ahmad and Noor, in a harrowing caesarian at the only women’s hospital still open
who have gone to fight with the Mujahideen against the in Kabul, which no longer has any anesthetic. Zalmai is cheerful
Soviets. Mammy’s depression worsens even more after the two and playful, but he has a malicious streak that comes out when
boys are killed. However, Laila has far more happy childhood he’s with his father, who spoils him while largely ignoring Aziza.
moments than Mariam, from her walks home from school with
Several years later, during a massive drought, Rasheed loses his
her friends Giti and Hasina, to her lessons with Babi and, above
business in a fire and the family begins to go hungry. Mariam
all, her friendship with the mischievous Tariq, who lost one leg
tries to call Herat to speak with Jalil, but learns that he died
in a land mine accident when he was five. Tariq and Laila
back in 1987—not long after he came to Kabul to see Mariam,
together witness the departure of the Soviets from
but she refused to see him. Rasheed forces Laila to send Aziza
Afghanistan. Their relationship turns romantic just as the
into an orphanage. He rarely agrees to accompany her and
Mujahideen’s infighting begins, and they sleep together for the
Mariam to see Aziza, though when he doesn’t, Laila leaves on
first time just before Tariq’s family flees for Pakistan. Not long
her own and endures frequent beatings by the Taliban for being
after that, Laila’s family is preparing to leave as well when a
a woman on the street alone.
rocket hits their home and kills both her parents.
One day, Laila, Mariam, and Zalmai are returning from the
Part III alternates between Mariam’s and Laila’s point of view
orphanage when Zalmai calls out that there’s a strange man
with each chapter. Rasheed digs Laila out of the rubble of their
outside the house. It’s Tariq—it turns out that Rasheed had
home, and Mariam slowly nurses him back to health. However,
hired Abdul Sharif to concoct the story of Tariq’s death in order
it soon becomes clear that Rasheed’s apparent kindness has
to force Laila to accept her marriage to Rasheed. Instead, Tariq
hidden his true goal—to take Laila as his second wife. Mariam
had made it to a refugee camp. There he attempted to make
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money for his family by transporting coats across the Pakistani belonging with Laila and her daughter, Mariam makes the
border, but the police found drugs inside the coats. He had ultimate sacrifice, giving up her own life so that those she loves
been imprisoned for seven years before leaving for Murree, can be free. She is the novel’s most powerful example of both
Pakistan and saving up money by working at a hotel. Laila tells the suffering and strength of women in Afghanistan.
him about Aziza and they make plans for him to meet her. That Laila – Unlike Mariam, Laila is a beautiful young girl from an
night, however, Zalmai tells Rasheed about the strange man educated family in Kabul whose father is committed to giving
Laila was talking to. Rasheed sends him upstairs and begins to her an education and preparing her for life as an independent
beat Laila and Mariam. When Laila hits him back, Rasheed flies woman. However, Laila suffers in her own way from the
on top of her and begins choking her. Mariam, seeing he means coldness of her mother, who seems to have abandoned her in
to kill her, takes a shovel from the toolshed and breaks it over favor of her two sons, who have gone off to battle and are
Rasheed’s head, killing him. eventually killed. Laila is curious and intelligent: she retains a
Mariam initially comforts Laila by convincing her they will run strong sense of Afghanistan’s culture and is hopeful for its
away together and lead a quiet peaceful life in a small village future. She is also bold and prone to risk-taking, as evidenced
somewhere. The next day, however, Mariam tells her that she by her love affair with Tariq as a teenager, by her plot to escape
cannot allow Laila and her family to suffer for Mariam’s actions. Rasheed, and by her constant commitment to make it to the
She says she could never have hoped for the love and sense of orphanage to visit her daughter Aziza despite the possibility of
belonging she experienced through her friendship with Laila. beatings by the Taliban. Ultimately, however, Laila is not as
Mariam turns herself in to the Taliban. After a brief trial, she is tough or world-weary as Mariam—though she remains forever
imprisoned and then sent to Ghazi stadium to be executed. cognizant of the tremendous sacrifice Mariam has made for
Part IV opens with Laila and Tariq living in Murree and working her. It is this sense of debt, to Mariam, to her family, and to
at a hotel. Though Laila enjoys her life in Pakistan, she knows Afghanistan, that will determine her return to Afghanistan from
that Mariam did not sacrifice herself so that she could be a exile in Pakistsan.
maid in a foreign country. The family returns to Afghanistan, Rasheed – The undeniable villain of the novel. Rasheed owns a
first stopping at Herat. Laila meets Mullah Faizullah’s son, shoe shop in Kabul, and is initially a successful businessman,
Hamza, and sees where Mariam grew up. Hamza gives her a though as things unravel in Afghanistan, he ends up struggling
box that Jalil had left for Mariam, which includes a letter in and eventually losing his business. Before marrying Mariam, he
which Jalil asks for Mariam’s forgiveness and encloses her part had already been married once before, but his wife and son had
of the inheritance—a token arriving too late for Mariam. died—his son drowned while Rasheed was drunk and passed
The novel closes with Laila working at the same orphanage out. He is initially kind and solicitous to Mariam but soon
where she had sent Aziza, teaching and working to renovate becomes a grunting, hostile bundle of nerves, who treats
the building. She is pregnant with her third child, and knows Mariam with scorn and beats her. The same process is repeated
that if it’s a girl, the baby will be named Mariam. when he marries Laila after her parents’ deaths—Rasheed
becomes increasingly violent to both his wives up until the
book’s climax. Rasheed doesn’t mind the Taliban, and indeed his
CHARA
CHARACTERS
CTERS character is meant to reveal the worst of men’s treatment of
women in Afghanistan during the time span of the novel.
MAJOR CHARACTERS Tariq – Laila’s childhood friend and eventually lover and
Mariam – One of the novel’s protagonists, Mariam is the husband. Tariq wears a prosthetic leg since he stepped on a
illegitimate daughter of one of the most successful land mine at the age of five. He can be mischievous and goofy,
businessmen in the city of Herat, Jalil. She grows up in a small and he is always eager to prove his strength by joining in any
hut several kilometers outside the city with her mother, Nana, fight and by defending Laila against other neighborhood boys.
before being married off at the age of fifteen to Rasheed and Tariq adores Laila and is unfailingly loyal to her, returning to
moving to Kabul. Throughout her life, Mariam is plagued by the Kabul to find her after years of imprisonment and exile in
shame of being a harami, or bastard (illegitimate child)—in Pakistan.
addition to the greater shame of believing she contributed to Nana – Mariam’s mother, once a maid in Jalil’s household until
her mother’s suicide. After feeling unwanted by and she became pregnant with his child. Banished to the kolba (a hut
unimportant to Jalil, she is also shunned by her husband when on a hill) after her father disowned her, Nana is bitter and
she is unable to bear him a child. This lack of love and belonging unhappy. She constantly complains about Jalil to Mariam and
is a constant theme throughout Mariam’s life, but she has a admonishes her not to trust any man. Though she can be at
remarkable ability to endure and persevere through times a stifling presence for Mariam, Nana adores her and
suffering—often with the help of the Koran verses that she won’t even let her attend school so as to keep her close. Nana’s
spent her childhood memorizing. After finally finding a sense of suicide, after Mariam has gone in search of Jalil, will make
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Mariam feel guilty and ashamed for the rest of her life, and Ahmad – Laila’s older brother, who goes off to fight with the
harbor regrets about the way she dismissed Nana’s warnings. Mujahideen against the Soviets and is killed.
Jalil – Mariam’s father, a successful cinema owner in Herat, Noor – Brother of Ahmad and Laila, also killed while fighting
who has three wives and nine legitimate children in addition to the Soviets.
Mariam. Jalil comes to see Mariam every week when she is a Abdul Sharif – A friend of Rasheed’s who, perhaps paid off by
child, but he never allows her to visit him in Herat or join the Rasheed, tells Laila the entirely fabricated story of Tariq’s
rest of his family there. Jalil does seem conflicted about death, so that she will no longer await or attempt to find him.
Mariam, but he refuses to see her when she comes on her own.
Though he seems regretful, he also allows his wives to arrange Giti – A schoolmate and friend of Laila’s, who is quiet and
the marriage between Mariam and Rasheed. For the rest of the earnest before falling in love with an older boy and becoming
novel, there are hints that Jalil deeply regrets the way he acted more confident. She is killed by a stray rocket as a teenager.
with Mariam, though it is only at the very end that we learn the Hasina – Another friend of Laila’s, who is chatty and
extent of this regret and shame. mischievous. She is sent away to marry a cousin in Lahore.
Mullah Faizullah – The village Koran tutor that teaches Habib Khan – The village leader, who often comes to visit
Mariam to recite the Koran and memorize the daily prayers. Mariam and Nana when Mariam is a child.
Mariam trusts and looks up to Mullah Faizullah. Though he Bibi jo – An old woman and friend of Nana’s who also visits the
cannot fully comfort her following Nana’s suicide, and though two of them at the kolba.
Mariam never sees him again after she leaves for Kabul, for the
Khala Rangmaal – Laila’s teacher during the communist
rest of the novel his teachings serve as a guide for her. She
regime, who is wholeheartedly committed to the communist
often calls upon what he has taught her as she endures further
cause, and also to the liberation and education of women.
suffering.
Afsoon – One of Jalil’s official wives.
Fariba (Mamm
(Mammy) y) – Laila’s mother. She was originally a curious,
joyful woman but, by the time Laila is growing up, she is Niloufar – Afsoon’s daughter.
increasingly depressed at the departure of her two sons to fight Nargis – Another of Jalil’s wives.
in the Mujahideen. Their death drives her into further
Saideh – One of Mariam’s half sisters, who, unlike Mariam, is
desperation, and she remains in her room for most of the time,
sent to school in Herat.
unable to take care of Laila and not able to function fully.
Mammy blames Babi for his inability to stop their sons from Naheed – Another of Mariam’s half sisters, who also attends
leaving, and for his bookishness and lack of practical savvy, school.
though Laila comes to understand that these accusations stem Yunus – Rasheed’s first son, who drowned in a lake as a child,
from her grief and desperation. while Rasheed had been passed out from drinking.
Hakim (Babi) – Laila’s father, and a high school teacher in Kabul Khadim – A neighborhood troublemaker, who pulls practical
before being fired by the communists. Nevertheless, Hakim jokes on Laila until Tariq beats him up and puts an end to it.
supports the communist regime’s policy of equality between Wakil – A man whom Laila asks to accompany her, Mariam, and
men and women, and strongly supports Laila’s education, even Aziza on the bus to Pakistan, but who betrays them to the
tutoring her himself after it becomes too dangerous for her to Mujahideen.
go to school. Despite Mammy’s dismissal of his intellectual
Zaman – The kindly orphanage director who looks after Aziza,
leanings, Laila admires Babi for his unwavering commitment to
and eventually becomes Laila’s partner in the orphanage
his wife.
renovation.
Zalmai – Laila’s son with Rasheed, whom she nearly aborts, but
Salim – A friend of Tariq’s from prison, who puts him in touch
whom she ends up loving just as much as she loves Aziza. When
with his brother Sayeed.
Zalmai is with his father, however, he becomes cranky and
difficult to handle. He misses his father desperately after his Sa
Sayyeed – The owner of a hotel in Murree, Pakistan, who hires
death, which leads Laila to understand one of the many costs of Tariq and eventually Laila and helps the two of them settle as
her happiness. exiles there.
Naghma – A woman in the jail with Mariam.
MINOR CHARACTERS Taxi Driv
Driver
er – Drives Babi, Laila, and Tariq to the Bamiyan Valley.
Hamza –Mullah Faizullah’s son, who meets Laila when she goes Aziza – The daughter of Laila and Tariq. Laila marries Rasheed
to Herat at the very end of the novel, and who shows her where in order to hide the fact of her out-of-wedlock pregnancy. Laila
Mariam once lived. is eventually forced to put Aziza into an orphanage, but she and
Tariq eventually get her back out.
©2017 LitCharts LLC v.006 www.LitCharts.com Page 4
A Thousand Splendid Suns
experiences in Afghanistan. Persian literature is heavily based
INTR
INTRODUCTION
ODUCTION on poetry rather than novels; Hosseini grew up reading Rumi,
Hafez, and Omar Khayyám, and throughout the novel there are
BRIEF BIOGRAPHY OF KHALED HOSSEINI references to these and other classic Afghan poets such as
Khaled Hosseini was born to a diplomat and a Farsi and history Ustad Khalilluah Khalili, Nezami, and, of course, the 17th-
teacher. His family later moved to Paris for his father’s work, century Saib-e-Tabrizi poem that gives the book its title. In
and they were there when the Soviet Union invaded terms of the novel’s form, Hosseini was deeply influenced by
Afghanistan. When he was fifteen, his family came to the US as John Steinbeck’s The Grapes of Wrath, which he first read in high
asylum seekers and settled in California. Hosseini ultimately school and whose descriptions of the bleak lot of migrant
attended Santa Clara University and later medical school. After farmworkers reminded him of the plight of many Afghans.
becoming a bestselling author with the publication of The Kite However, at least some of the success of A Thousand Splendid
Runner, Hosseini quit his job as a doctor to write full-time. In Suns (and its forerunner) can be attributed to the fact that,
March 2003, he returned to Afghanistan and was compelled to before their publication, there had been few novels in the
write more about the experiences of Afghans under the Taliban. English-speaking world that dealt with Afghanistan, a literary
He is also a UN goodwill ambassador, and has established a gap Hosseini set out to fill.
nonprofit providing humanitarian assistance to Afghans. He
lives in Northern California.
KEY FACTS
HISTORICAL CONTEXT • Full Title: A Thousand Splendid Suns
The novel takes place over approximately forty years, from the • When Written: 2004-2007
early 1970s, when Mariam is a teenager, to 2003, when Laila is • Where Written: California
settled once again in Kabul with her family. Throughout this • When Published: 2007
time, Afghanistan was subjected to a series of violent, brutal • Literary Period: Contemporary
wars and numerous political coups. When the story opens,
• Genre: Novel
Afghanistan has recently undergone a bloodless coup in 1973.
In 1978, there is a Communist counter-coup, and the Soviet • Setting: Herat and Kabul, Afghanistan
Union invades in 1979. After battles with the Mujahideen, or • Climax: As Rasheed is preparing to choke Laila to death,
Islamic fighters supported by the United States, the Soviet Mariam kills him with a shovel—thus ensuring both her own
Union finally withdraws its last troops in 1989 and the death, but also a hopeful future for Laila and her family.
Mujahideen take over. After a decade of bloody infighting, the • Antagonist: Rasheed, Laila, and Mariam’s husband; the Taliban
Taliban seize control and establish peace but also an extremely • Point of View: The story is told in the third person, alternating
strict Shari’a law. Finally, the book ends during the American between Laila’s and Mariam’s point of view—the section and
occupation of Afghanistan following the events of September chapter divisions specify which one. The narrator never
11, 2001. Hosseini attempts to anchor the reader in this deviates from the perspective of each woman, but at times
complex history, by showing how specific historical events—the provides foreshadowing hints to the reader concerning what
departure of the Soviets from Kabul, for instance, or the arrival awaits the characters.
of the Taliban—impacts the lives of the characters. By
interweaving historical facts, often with dates and leaders’ EXTRA CREDIT
names included, with the fictional narrative, Hosseini helps to Poetry Slam Hosseini’s favorite book of all time is the collected
breathe life into what could be a confusing historical lesson for “Poets of Hafez,” a revered Persian poet, which he originally
an English-speaking audience. He also shows the extent to read as a schoolboy in Kabul.
which politics has impacted every Afghan person’s life over the
past several decades. Culture Shock When Hosseini arrived in California as a fifteen-
year-old, he only spoke a few words of English. Now, though, he
RELATED LITERARY WORKS finds English the most natural language in which to write.
Just before The Kite Runner was published, Hosseini went to
Kabul for the first time in 27 years. His first novel had focused
on male relationships in the expatriate Afghan community, but
this visit gave him the motivation to concentrate on women’s
©2017 LitCharts LLC v.006 www.LitCharts.com Page 1
, Get hundreds more LitCharts at www.litcharts.com
begs him not to, but Rasheed threatens to turn Laila out onto
PL
PLO
OT SUMMARY the streets. Laila agrees to wed Rasheed—she has become
pregnant with Tariq’s child, and knows this is the only way to
Part I of A Thousand Splendid Suns begins in the early 1970s,
save the baby and herself. Mariam despises Laila, and the two
when Mariam is a teenager living with her mother, Nana, in a
live together in constant tension and low-simmering hostility.
kolba or small hut outside of the city of Herat. We learn that
Not long afterward, a man named Abdul Sharif comes to the
Mariam is the illegitimate child or harami (“bastard”) of Nana
house and says he was in a hospital with Tariq, whose lorry
and Jalil, a wealthy cinema owner in Herat. Mariam is taught to
(truck) had been caught in crossfire on the way to Pakistan and
recite verses from the Koran by Mullah Faizullah, whom she
who was gravely wounded and, Abdul Sharif says, died.
looks up to and admires. Jalil comes to visit Mariam every week,
and though Nana tries to convince Mariam that Jalil is Rasheed is initially solicitous and adoring of Laila. After Laila
embarrassed by her and refuses to consider her a true member gives birth to a baby girl, Aziza, however, he grows once again
of his family, to Mariam, he can do no wrong. irritable and even violent, angry it was not a boy. At one point,
Laila tries to stop Rasheed from beating Mariam. This small act
One day, against Jalil’s wishes, Mariam descends the hill into
leads the tensions between the two women to cool, and after
Herat for the very first time in order to see him. She is told he
drinking several cups of chai together, they start to become
isn’t there, and after spending the entire night sleeping on his
close friends and allies rather than adversaries. Laila confides
stoop, his chauffeur brings her back to the kolba, though not
to Mariam that she has been stealing bit by bit from Rasheed
before she has a glimpse of Jalil looking down at her from the
and plans to escape to Pakistan in the spring. Together with
window. Upon their return, Mariam sees her mother hanging
Aziza, the two of them depart for the Kabul bus station and ask
from a rope. She feels desperately guilty, especially now that
a kind-looking man to pretend he’s their cousin accompanying
she knows Nana was right about Jalil. She loathes him even
them out of the city—the Mujahideen prevent women from
more once he marries her off to Rasheed, a shoe shop owner in
travelling alone. But the man betrays them, and Laila and
Kabul thirty years her senior.
Mariam are questioned before being taken back to Rasheed’s,
In Kabul, Mariam is astounded by the cosmopolitan where they are both beaten severely and locked into separate
atmosphere, though Rasheed makes her wear a burqa and rooms.
mainly stay within the home. Rasheed initially shows Mariam
The Taliban take control of Afghanistan shortly afterward, and
around the city and buys her gifts, but after she suffers multiple
begin to implement strict Shari’a, a strict set of religious laws
miscarriages he grows sullen and hostile, yelling at her and
that prevent women from working and severely restrict their
beating her.
freedom and mobility. Around the same time, Laila realizes she
Part II shifts to the perspective of Laila, who is growing up in is pregnant with Rasheed’s child. She comes close to aborting
Kabul not far from Rasheed and Mariam’s house, but who is the child on her own, but ends up deciding that she cannot
getting an education thanks to her progressive father, Babi. But accept what the Mujahideen had accepted—that sometimes in
Mammy, her mother, is depressed and unable to take care of war innocent life must be taken. She gives birth to a boy, Zalmai,
Laila because she so misses her two sons, Ahmad and Noor, in a harrowing caesarian at the only women’s hospital still open
who have gone to fight with the Mujahideen against the in Kabul, which no longer has any anesthetic. Zalmai is cheerful
Soviets. Mammy’s depression worsens even more after the two and playful, but he has a malicious streak that comes out when
boys are killed. However, Laila has far more happy childhood he’s with his father, who spoils him while largely ignoring Aziza.
moments than Mariam, from her walks home from school with
Several years later, during a massive drought, Rasheed loses his
her friends Giti and Hasina, to her lessons with Babi and, above
business in a fire and the family begins to go hungry. Mariam
all, her friendship with the mischievous Tariq, who lost one leg
tries to call Herat to speak with Jalil, but learns that he died
in a land mine accident when he was five. Tariq and Laila
back in 1987—not long after he came to Kabul to see Mariam,
together witness the departure of the Soviets from
but she refused to see him. Rasheed forces Laila to send Aziza
Afghanistan. Their relationship turns romantic just as the
into an orphanage. He rarely agrees to accompany her and
Mujahideen’s infighting begins, and they sleep together for the
Mariam to see Aziza, though when he doesn’t, Laila leaves on
first time just before Tariq’s family flees for Pakistan. Not long
her own and endures frequent beatings by the Taliban for being
after that, Laila’s family is preparing to leave as well when a
a woman on the street alone.
rocket hits their home and kills both her parents.
One day, Laila, Mariam, and Zalmai are returning from the
Part III alternates between Mariam’s and Laila’s point of view
orphanage when Zalmai calls out that there’s a strange man
with each chapter. Rasheed digs Laila out of the rubble of their
outside the house. It’s Tariq—it turns out that Rasheed had
home, and Mariam slowly nurses him back to health. However,
hired Abdul Sharif to concoct the story of Tariq’s death in order
it soon becomes clear that Rasheed’s apparent kindness has
to force Laila to accept her marriage to Rasheed. Instead, Tariq
hidden his true goal—to take Laila as his second wife. Mariam
had made it to a refugee camp. There he attempted to make
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money for his family by transporting coats across the Pakistani belonging with Laila and her daughter, Mariam makes the
border, but the police found drugs inside the coats. He had ultimate sacrifice, giving up her own life so that those she loves
been imprisoned for seven years before leaving for Murree, can be free. She is the novel’s most powerful example of both
Pakistan and saving up money by working at a hotel. Laila tells the suffering and strength of women in Afghanistan.
him about Aziza and they make plans for him to meet her. That Laila – Unlike Mariam, Laila is a beautiful young girl from an
night, however, Zalmai tells Rasheed about the strange man educated family in Kabul whose father is committed to giving
Laila was talking to. Rasheed sends him upstairs and begins to her an education and preparing her for life as an independent
beat Laila and Mariam. When Laila hits him back, Rasheed flies woman. However, Laila suffers in her own way from the
on top of her and begins choking her. Mariam, seeing he means coldness of her mother, who seems to have abandoned her in
to kill her, takes a shovel from the toolshed and breaks it over favor of her two sons, who have gone off to battle and are
Rasheed’s head, killing him. eventually killed. Laila is curious and intelligent: she retains a
Mariam initially comforts Laila by convincing her they will run strong sense of Afghanistan’s culture and is hopeful for its
away together and lead a quiet peaceful life in a small village future. She is also bold and prone to risk-taking, as evidenced
somewhere. The next day, however, Mariam tells her that she by her love affair with Tariq as a teenager, by her plot to escape
cannot allow Laila and her family to suffer for Mariam’s actions. Rasheed, and by her constant commitment to make it to the
She says she could never have hoped for the love and sense of orphanage to visit her daughter Aziza despite the possibility of
belonging she experienced through her friendship with Laila. beatings by the Taliban. Ultimately, however, Laila is not as
Mariam turns herself in to the Taliban. After a brief trial, she is tough or world-weary as Mariam—though she remains forever
imprisoned and then sent to Ghazi stadium to be executed. cognizant of the tremendous sacrifice Mariam has made for
Part IV opens with Laila and Tariq living in Murree and working her. It is this sense of debt, to Mariam, to her family, and to
at a hotel. Though Laila enjoys her life in Pakistan, she knows Afghanistan, that will determine her return to Afghanistan from
that Mariam did not sacrifice herself so that she could be a exile in Pakistsan.
maid in a foreign country. The family returns to Afghanistan, Rasheed – The undeniable villain of the novel. Rasheed owns a
first stopping at Herat. Laila meets Mullah Faizullah’s son, shoe shop in Kabul, and is initially a successful businessman,
Hamza, and sees where Mariam grew up. Hamza gives her a though as things unravel in Afghanistan, he ends up struggling
box that Jalil had left for Mariam, which includes a letter in and eventually losing his business. Before marrying Mariam, he
which Jalil asks for Mariam’s forgiveness and encloses her part had already been married once before, but his wife and son had
of the inheritance—a token arriving too late for Mariam. died—his son drowned while Rasheed was drunk and passed
The novel closes with Laila working at the same orphanage out. He is initially kind and solicitous to Mariam but soon
where she had sent Aziza, teaching and working to renovate becomes a grunting, hostile bundle of nerves, who treats
the building. She is pregnant with her third child, and knows Mariam with scorn and beats her. The same process is repeated
that if it’s a girl, the baby will be named Mariam. when he marries Laila after her parents’ deaths—Rasheed
becomes increasingly violent to both his wives up until the
book’s climax. Rasheed doesn’t mind the Taliban, and indeed his
CHARA
CHARACTERS
CTERS character is meant to reveal the worst of men’s treatment of
women in Afghanistan during the time span of the novel.
MAJOR CHARACTERS Tariq – Laila’s childhood friend and eventually lover and
Mariam – One of the novel’s protagonists, Mariam is the husband. Tariq wears a prosthetic leg since he stepped on a
illegitimate daughter of one of the most successful land mine at the age of five. He can be mischievous and goofy,
businessmen in the city of Herat, Jalil. She grows up in a small and he is always eager to prove his strength by joining in any
hut several kilometers outside the city with her mother, Nana, fight and by defending Laila against other neighborhood boys.
before being married off at the age of fifteen to Rasheed and Tariq adores Laila and is unfailingly loyal to her, returning to
moving to Kabul. Throughout her life, Mariam is plagued by the Kabul to find her after years of imprisonment and exile in
shame of being a harami, or bastard (illegitimate child)—in Pakistan.
addition to the greater shame of believing she contributed to Nana – Mariam’s mother, once a maid in Jalil’s household until
her mother’s suicide. After feeling unwanted by and she became pregnant with his child. Banished to the kolba (a hut
unimportant to Jalil, she is also shunned by her husband when on a hill) after her father disowned her, Nana is bitter and
she is unable to bear him a child. This lack of love and belonging unhappy. She constantly complains about Jalil to Mariam and
is a constant theme throughout Mariam’s life, but she has a admonishes her not to trust any man. Though she can be at
remarkable ability to endure and persevere through times a stifling presence for Mariam, Nana adores her and
suffering—often with the help of the Koran verses that she won’t even let her attend school so as to keep her close. Nana’s
spent her childhood memorizing. After finally finding a sense of suicide, after Mariam has gone in search of Jalil, will make
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Mariam feel guilty and ashamed for the rest of her life, and Ahmad – Laila’s older brother, who goes off to fight with the
harbor regrets about the way she dismissed Nana’s warnings. Mujahideen against the Soviets and is killed.
Jalil – Mariam’s father, a successful cinema owner in Herat, Noor – Brother of Ahmad and Laila, also killed while fighting
who has three wives and nine legitimate children in addition to the Soviets.
Mariam. Jalil comes to see Mariam every week when she is a Abdul Sharif – A friend of Rasheed’s who, perhaps paid off by
child, but he never allows her to visit him in Herat or join the Rasheed, tells Laila the entirely fabricated story of Tariq’s
rest of his family there. Jalil does seem conflicted about death, so that she will no longer await or attempt to find him.
Mariam, but he refuses to see her when she comes on her own.
Though he seems regretful, he also allows his wives to arrange Giti – A schoolmate and friend of Laila’s, who is quiet and
the marriage between Mariam and Rasheed. For the rest of the earnest before falling in love with an older boy and becoming
novel, there are hints that Jalil deeply regrets the way he acted more confident. She is killed by a stray rocket as a teenager.
with Mariam, though it is only at the very end that we learn the Hasina – Another friend of Laila’s, who is chatty and
extent of this regret and shame. mischievous. She is sent away to marry a cousin in Lahore.
Mullah Faizullah – The village Koran tutor that teaches Habib Khan – The village leader, who often comes to visit
Mariam to recite the Koran and memorize the daily prayers. Mariam and Nana when Mariam is a child.
Mariam trusts and looks up to Mullah Faizullah. Though he Bibi jo – An old woman and friend of Nana’s who also visits the
cannot fully comfort her following Nana’s suicide, and though two of them at the kolba.
Mariam never sees him again after she leaves for Kabul, for the
Khala Rangmaal – Laila’s teacher during the communist
rest of the novel his teachings serve as a guide for her. She
regime, who is wholeheartedly committed to the communist
often calls upon what he has taught her as she endures further
cause, and also to the liberation and education of women.
suffering.
Afsoon – One of Jalil’s official wives.
Fariba (Mamm
(Mammy) y) – Laila’s mother. She was originally a curious,
joyful woman but, by the time Laila is growing up, she is Niloufar – Afsoon’s daughter.
increasingly depressed at the departure of her two sons to fight Nargis – Another of Jalil’s wives.
in the Mujahideen. Their death drives her into further
Saideh – One of Mariam’s half sisters, who, unlike Mariam, is
desperation, and she remains in her room for most of the time,
sent to school in Herat.
unable to take care of Laila and not able to function fully.
Mammy blames Babi for his inability to stop their sons from Naheed – Another of Mariam’s half sisters, who also attends
leaving, and for his bookishness and lack of practical savvy, school.
though Laila comes to understand that these accusations stem Yunus – Rasheed’s first son, who drowned in a lake as a child,
from her grief and desperation. while Rasheed had been passed out from drinking.
Hakim (Babi) – Laila’s father, and a high school teacher in Kabul Khadim – A neighborhood troublemaker, who pulls practical
before being fired by the communists. Nevertheless, Hakim jokes on Laila until Tariq beats him up and puts an end to it.
supports the communist regime’s policy of equality between Wakil – A man whom Laila asks to accompany her, Mariam, and
men and women, and strongly supports Laila’s education, even Aziza on the bus to Pakistan, but who betrays them to the
tutoring her himself after it becomes too dangerous for her to Mujahideen.
go to school. Despite Mammy’s dismissal of his intellectual
Zaman – The kindly orphanage director who looks after Aziza,
leanings, Laila admires Babi for his unwavering commitment to
and eventually becomes Laila’s partner in the orphanage
his wife.
renovation.
Zalmai – Laila’s son with Rasheed, whom she nearly aborts, but
Salim – A friend of Tariq’s from prison, who puts him in touch
whom she ends up loving just as much as she loves Aziza. When
with his brother Sayeed.
Zalmai is with his father, however, he becomes cranky and
difficult to handle. He misses his father desperately after his Sa
Sayyeed – The owner of a hotel in Murree, Pakistan, who hires
death, which leads Laila to understand one of the many costs of Tariq and eventually Laila and helps the two of them settle as
her happiness. exiles there.
Naghma – A woman in the jail with Mariam.
MINOR CHARACTERS Taxi Driv
Driver
er – Drives Babi, Laila, and Tariq to the Bamiyan Valley.
Hamza –Mullah Faizullah’s son, who meets Laila when she goes Aziza – The daughter of Laila and Tariq. Laila marries Rasheed
to Herat at the very end of the novel, and who shows her where in order to hide the fact of her out-of-wedlock pregnancy. Laila
Mariam once lived. is eventually forced to put Aziza into an orphanage, but she and
Tariq eventually get her back out.
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