A Thousand Splendid Suns

by Khaled Hosseini

“Learn this now and learn it well, my daughter: Like a compass needle that points north, a man’s accusing finger always finds a woman. Always. You remember that, Mariam.”

Because a society has no chance of success if its women are uneducated, Laila. No chance.

Boys, 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.”