title: A Thousand Splendid Suns by: Hosseini, Khaled published: 2009-02-24 read: 2024-01 preview

Two stories intertwine. And if you’re a slow reader, you may be confused about Mariam just disappearing from the sad story until then. Mariam grows up with her mum in something like a shed, her father having made her in his “fling with the maid” or such. He takes care of the maid, afterwards, in a remote, detached way, and of the child, making sure she is not neglected, and making sure she does not come too close.

Mariam misreads the signs, tries to increase the contact to her father who closes the door in her face – and so also breaks her mother’s heart, who then decides to kill herself, to express her sadness towards Mariam, expecting more gratitude and understanding from her daughter.

And so off Mariam goes, being sold to the first eligible bachelor who comes around, and increasingly abuses her, especially as the couple appears to be unable to produce children.

The neighbour, a young girl, saves her, as the disaster in Afghanistan evolves. And it does, with different forces occupying the country, one after the other; with a string of wars and “freedom” fights, one after the other.

Laila’s parents die, her lover dies; Miriam dies; her husband dies, at the hands of his two women who finally fight against their suppression. And in the end, Laila refinds her youth love, and a sort-of happy ending ensues.

But happy only for a few, who stand in the ruins of all the sorrow, death, destruction that happened in the decades past.

A bitter aftertaste the book gives, since it does not know about how the disaster in Afghanistan continues, to this day.

A recommended read.