A Thousand Splendid Suns

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* * *Shapes moving about. A fluorescent light shines from the ceiling above.A woman's face appears, hovers over hers.Laila fades back to the dark.* * *Another face. This time a man's. His features seem broad and droopy.His lips move but make no sound. All Laila hears is ringing.The man waves his hand at her. Frowns. His lips move again.It hurts. It hurts to breathe. It hurts everywhere.A glass of water. A pink pill.Back to the darkness.* * *The woman again. Long face, narrow-set eyes. She says something.Laila can't hear anything but the ringing. But she can see the words, likethick black syrup, spilling out of the woman's mouth.Her chest hurts. Her arms and legs hurt.All around, shapes moving.Where is Tariq?Why isn't he here?Darkness. A flock of stars.Babi and she, perched somewhere high up. He is pointing to a field ofbarley. A generator comes to life.The long-faced woman is standing over her looking down.It hurts to breathe.
Somewhere, an accordion playing.Mercifully, the pink pill again. Then a deep hush. A deep hush fallsover everything.
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Khour Rivekhead Booksa member of Pe
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PART ONE1.Mariam was five years old
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there once, to the tree. You were l
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Jalil didn't have the dil either, N
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center, in the shade of the willows
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uneventful forty-year reign. She sa
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"Well, one of," he said and smiled.
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* * *In the mornings, they awoke to
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He said they comforted him, eased h
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Mariam did."Only one skill And it's
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would squeal.Suspended in the air,
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He was the one who told her in the
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gone, he would surely take her with
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Mariam remembered him telling her t
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to the north of the city, Char-suq
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She waited until her legs were stif
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from hookahs.The old man turned ont
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Mariam only looked at him."I'll tak
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the cold leather of the backseat.*
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It was when Mullah Faizullah's slig
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chest with a flower vase on it. The
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Mariam shrugged. She didn't say to
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friend at the door, his white beard
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1 hey sat across from her, Jalil an
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Mariam fixed her eyes on Jalil, her
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"He's so old and weak," Khadija eve
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pair of matching sandals.She was ta
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"Mariam," Jalil whispered."Yes," sh
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Mariam could not bring herself to a
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"We're in Deh-Mazang," he said. The
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"What's this crying about?" Rasheed
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"Yes.""You can thank me then.""Than
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mother, feeling nauseated and homes
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say to you about the crying?"* * *T
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face. Her lips were much fuller tha
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again and running, bolting past the
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Mariam blinked."It's a joke. Of cou
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air smoky. The walls smelled faintl
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and kissed on the cheek, Mariam sto
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* * *That night, Rasheed visited he
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Except for a handful of days, Rashe
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out "Eidmubarak" to her as they pas
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On every page were women, beautiful
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unsettling about the way Rasheed se
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hammering- She wrapped a shawl arou
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Mariam stroked the softness of her
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"What kind of answer is that?" he s
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Other days, Mariam was besieged wit
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"Are you?"His eyes shifted to her.
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On April 17,1978, the year Mariam t
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apologies and sometimes not.In the
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salty or too bland for his taste. T
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yellow, an exhausted Fariba had pro
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Through the mouthful of grit and pe
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parents were fighting. Again. Laila
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go to war-Mammy too had thought Bab
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pulled tightly back and tied in a b
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with her books pressed to her chest
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"Beans, girls," Hasina said. "You r
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understand it-couldn't quite pictur
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the conversation, as the women talk
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* * *Mammy had pulled the yellowish
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"The usual.""Did you eat?""I did.""
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"Of course you do. Shut the curtain
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"What did you do 1 ?" she exclaimed
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thanks to God.""Heart attack. His s
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it's nonsense-and very dangerous no
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"Your masculine smarts? Really? Tel
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himself more upright, taking on a s
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reasons people out there took up ar
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duties."It's under control. You go
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But the feeling didn't last. It was
Page 147 and 148: would obliterate her in death. Mamm
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Page 151 and 152: * * *Half an hour later, the driver
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Page 157 and 158: * * *Later, after they'd eaten a lu
Page 159 and 160: 22.January 1989One cold, overcast d
Page 161 and 162: They "went to Cinema Park later tha
Page 163 and 164: Three years passed.In that time, Ta
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Page 167 and 168: "I see you want to," Laila said, ir
Page 169 and 170: that some, if not most, of the neig
Page 171 and 172: "Oh, he has the most handsome smile
Page 173 and 174: off his newly muscular arms-complim
Page 175 and 176: repertoire of poses: back to the wa
Page 177 and 178: precisely at the midpoint between m
Page 179 and 180: And when the rockets began to rain
Page 181 and 182: "I don't like it," she said. "Guns
Page 183 and 184: In June of that yeah, 1992, there w
Page 185 and 186: One daY that same month of June, Gi
Page 187 and 188: "And my mother is not a young woman
Page 189 and 190: "Let me marry you, Laila. Today. We
Page 191 and 192: Laila couldn't decide which he had
Page 193 and 194: stood by the front gates, leaning a
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Page 197: She thought suddenly of her dream.
Page 201 and 202: she had to retch."How long is she s
Page 203 and 204: at the girl, at her blond curls, he
Page 205 and 206: names added to theshaheed list. Nor
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Page 209 and 210: bleeping, syringes all over the gro
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Page 215 and 216: But this is for the best. You'll se
Page 217 and 218: Not with this daily retching.This n
Page 219 and 220: 31.MadamIn the daytime, the girl wa
Page 221 and 222: "No matter. The point is, I am your
Page 223 and 224: could hear the creaking of its hing
Page 225 and 226: "You can imagine the rest. The boy
Page 227 and 228: he's siding with Massoud. And Hekma
Page 229 and 230: imagined. He had her sit behind his
Page 231 and 232: Jbarly one morning the next spring,
Page 233 and 234: "Not yet, Rasheed. No. Let go. Come
Page 235 and 236: "I was listening to the radio the o
Page 237 and 238: anything.In the end, Mariam knew th
Page 239 and 240: Mariam pulled her finger free. The
Page 241 and 242: "Which was it?""He was like both.""
Page 243 and 244: Laila sat in a comer and draped her
Page 245 and 246: Mariam gave a half smile. "It's a g
Page 247 and 248: * * *Early the following yeah, in J
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loaded gun near Aziza.One day that
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azan rang out, and then the morning
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Mariam shifted Aziza in her arms. "
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Laila gave him their names, and he
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"You're not going to get on this bu
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died. Sometimes they're telling the
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to go-"Laila didn't see the punch c
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"Soon." Laila kissed her daughter,
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country that will hold me accountab
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They "went our that day, the four o
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Shar-e-Nau, in Karteh-Parwan, in Wa
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Ever cared to visit the real Afghan
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punishment. Then, on Fridays, he we
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to guide the spoke, if indeed she c
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Before the registration window was
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aluminum table. The top shelf had a
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you'll find yourself in a bidding w
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behind their parched lands, selling
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with Laila. He had bought him a new
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were inseparable now. Of late, with
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sound like dropping a rice bag to t
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their livestock. When they found ne
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few toys Laila had fought Rasheed t
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of her children. She had saved the
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"What's taking him so long?" Mariam
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lived in Shar-e-Nau and owned the c
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the ragged net lying limply in the
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On the way to Karteh-Seh, Zalmai bo
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you won't go hungry. They have rice
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Next to Laila, Aziza snorted.Zaman
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bless you, brother."***But "when th
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warn you.""I'm coming with you," Ma
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"They're fractures along the earth'
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transpiration.More than once, Laila
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bewildered, almost harmless. Like s
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perfectly still and looked at Tariq
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LailaIariq said that one of the men
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"I'm so sorry.""Well. Yes. Me too.
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"I don't recognize Kabul.""Neither
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long to see the doctor, Tariq said.
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"He was only visiting," Mariam said
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guilty to feel that about Zalmai, w
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new leg. Tariq said he'd wept at th
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"I'll count the minutes."Almost ten
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"And then…Idon't know. I have to
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touched her fingers to her temple,
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Mariam clawed at him. She beat at h
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LailaLaila was aware of the face ov
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say anything for a long time.Laila'
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"Somewhere with trees," she said. "
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"I don't know, my love."When was he
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a while, wait for things to calm do
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awaited planting and chickens that
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glass. There were no curtains eithe
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It was just as well, she said, her
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"Well, then." He threw up his hands
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walls. She watched the winds stir m
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A lump closed off her throat. In a
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her eyes, it was not regret any lon
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It was Sayeecl who summoned a frien
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tags along, a mop in one hand, the
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delivered again.At some point, Lail
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"Did you hear?" he says, panting a
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In less than two hours, both towers
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But it rankles Laila, what Tariq is
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precisely the sort of life she used
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"I am happy," Laila says. "Of cours
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As she leans back and watches Sayee
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is a painting of the poet Khaja Abd
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she is alive and sitting in this ta
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the wall They sit by the open windo
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mosquitoes hovering in front of her
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summon Mariam behind the lids of he
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"Let's go back," he says. Then, "I
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* * *Tariq and the children come ba
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deserved you. Now all I can do is a
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Zalmai's new goat. Laila watched th
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Laila yanks her children back onto
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calling after her, Aziza screaming
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blankets that keep the children war
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AcknowledgmentsA few clarifications
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A Thousand Splendid Suns

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