A Thousand Splendid Suns

by Khaled Hosseini

She pretended that for each second that she didn’t breathe, God would grant her another day with Jalil.

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

In that week, Laila came to believe that of all the hardships a person had to face none was more punishing than the simple act of waiting.

Time, blunting the edges of those sharp memories.

She would not miss him as she did now, when the ache of his absence was her unremitting companion—like the phantom pain of an amputee.

Though there had been moments of beauty in it, Mariam knew that life for the most part had been unkind to her. But as she walked the final twenty paces, she could not help but wish for more of it.

big lump of gratitude catches in her throat, makes her eyes water.

“He will never leave. Look at me, Aziza. Your father will never hurt you, and he will never leave.”

“Me?” he says. “I’ll follow you to the end of the world, Laila.”