A Thousand Splendid Suns

by Khaled Hosseini

Laila came to see, treated friendship the way they treated the sun: its existence undisputed; its radiance best enjoyed, not beheld directly.

“Tell your secret to the wind, but don’t blame it for telling the trees.”

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

“This is why the Holy Koran forbids sharab. Because it always falls on the sober to pay for the sins of the drunk. So it does.”