She learns what her mother rang in her head for fifteen years: the women of their servant class only know one thing, and it is how to endure.

From that day, life as she knows it spirals its way to the depths of hell’s hottest fires. Eventually Mariam convinces him to take her to his cinema but, when he does not show up, she takes matters into her own hands. But, not once does he bring her to the places he describes: his house with many children and three wives, his cinema and the splendid city of Kabul. Mariam’s father, whom she adores, visits her once a week feeding all her mind’s fantasies with his stories and descriptions. She spends the first fifteen years of her life with her mother in a small wooden house near a stream. Young Mariam is a girl born out of wedlock to a woman suffering from periodic mental disorder. ‘A Thousand Splendid Suns’ highlights the relationship between women and girls, and its importance in its setting. A Thousand Splendid Suns: The story of an illegitimate child in 20th century Kabul.

The stories, both initially set in Afghanistan, are quite different yet equally heart-wrenching and thought-provoking, especially for a young woman. In 2016, after Khaled Hosseini had paradoxically broken and captured my heart with ‘The Kite Runner’, I grabbed ‘A Thousand Splendid Suns’ with which he did it all over again. There, I picked up some new titles and one that I read over a year ago, since when I have recommended it to every reading woman I know. Two weekends ago I found myself in the glorious trap of Grow Well’s book sale in Rodney Bay.

Under a thousand splendid suns