“One could not count the moons that shimmer on her roofs, or the thousand splendid suns that hide behind her walls.”

This is yet another spellbinding book by the author of The Kite Runner. It is not a sequel though this too is based in war-torn Afghanistan. I bought this book because of the author as I had thoroughly enjoyed reading The Kite Runner. I was not disappointed at all.

It is the story of Laila who sees that people find a way to survive, to go on despite the history of Afghanistan being marked by death and loss and a lot of grief. This is more than a story of survival in the face of what seem to be insurmountable odds. It is a story of the unconquerable spirit of a people and individuals seen through the eyes of two, who I deemed as, indomitable women. It is a story we see through the eyes of Laila and Mariam.

Their lives that we get to glimpse into reflect the lives of thousands of Afghani women who have endured despite the odds. The stories of Mariam and Laila begin independent of one another even as they live a few doors apart in Kabul. When a bomb falls on Laila’s home, killing her parents, she is taken in by Mariam and her husband Rasheed,who I basically think is a bloody evil bastard. Mariam was married to him when she was fifteen. Laila is nearly the same age and Rasheed lusts her, pushing aside Mariam. It is difficult to accept that some of what Westerners perceive as evil & atrocious is Rasheed acting basically in accordance with centuries’ old Afghani tradition.

A lovely book. You must read it.