books similar to a thousand splendid suns

The belt made a thump when Rasheed dropped it to the ground and came for her. Had she not looked after him when he was ill? Fed him, and his friends, cleaned up after him dutifully? Had she not given this man her youth? Had she ever justly deserved his meanness? A complacent wife? A dishonorable woman? Discreditable? Vulgar? What harmful thing had she willfully done to this man to warrant his malice, his continual assaults, the relish with which he tormented her? 'Had she been a deceitful wife? she asked herself. The pair returns to Afghanistan and Laila assumes the position of teacher in the orphanage which sheltered Aziza once. She visits Mariam's birth place and finds the money that Jalil leaves for her on his death. Taliban shoots her dead and Laila and kids live with Tariq in Pakistan till the fall of Taliban. Hearing the news Rasheed starts to beat up Laila, but this time Mariam intervenes and kills him with a shovel. Tariq's unexpected appearance from Pakistan and lovers' reunion gives new twist. A drought that follow makes life unbearable and Aziza is sent to an orphanage. Laila strikes a friendship with Mariam and together they try to run away but gets caught.īy the time Laila has given birth to Rasheed's son, Zalmai, Taliban has assumed power and tyranny reigns on Afghanistan. She gives birth to a daughter, Aziza, and soon Rasheed gets suspicious. On recovering she finds that she is with Tariq's child and the news of Tariq's death shatters her, though it didn't prevent her from eagerly accepting Rasheed's hand for her unborn child. A severely injured Laila is taken by Rasheed and Mariam. Laila'a family too decides to leave in the end but as they are packing, a rocket comes down destroying her house and killing her parents. Tariq leaves the city with her parents and their emotional farewell ends in the consumption of love. When the Soviet Union disintegrates at last, everyone anticipates peace, but now the Mujahideens are cutting each others throat. Laila and her friend Tariq also live in the vicinity she has lost her two brothers to the war between Mujahideens and Soviet Union. But when she fails to produce a heir, there begins the days of beatings and silent suffering. Jalil marries her off to Rasheed, a shoemaker from Kabul, who is thirty years her senior.

She finds her mother hanging from the tree on returning home, thinking that her only daughter has deserted her. But on her fifteenth birthday she breeches this unwritten rules to go and see Jalil, and is fated to spend the night outside his home in cold. As a harami (illegitimate child), little Mariam is not acceptable to the outside world. Mariam lives in a kolba on the outskirts of Herat with her embittered mother and her rich father Jalil is in the city with his three wives and nine children. Novel revolves around two women - Mariam and Laila.

Books similar to a thousand splendid suns