a Thousand Splendid Suns (2007) by Hosseini Khaled

Author:Hosseini, Khaled [Khaled, Hosseini,]
Language: eng
Format: epub, mobi
Published: 2010-12-19T00:42:04.796000+00:00

Every week, without fail, the girl heated a black metal brazier over aflame, tossed a pinch of wild rue seeds in it, and wafted theespandi smoke in her baby's direction to ward off evil. Mariam found it exhausting to watch the girl's lolloping enthusiasm-and had to admit, if only privately, to a degree of admiration. She marveled at how the girl's eyes shone with worship, even in the mornings when her face drooped and her complexion was waxy from a night's worth of walking the baby. The girl had fits of laughter when the baby passed gas. The tiniest changes in the baby enchanted her, and everything it did was declared spectacular. "Look! She's reaching for the rattle. How clever she is." "I'll call the newspapers," said Rasheed. Every night, there were demonstrations. When the girl insisted he witness something, Rasheed tipped his chin upward and cast an impatient, sidelong glance down the blue-veined hook of his nose. "Watch. Watch how she laughs when I snap my fingers. There. See? Did you see?"Rasheed would grunt, and go back to his plate. Mariam remembered how the girl's mere presence used to overwhelm him. Everything she said used to please him, intrigue him, make him look up from his plate and nod with approval. The strange thing was, the girl's fall from grace ought to have pleased Mariam, brought her a sense of vindication. But it didn't. It didn't. To her own surprise, Mariam found herself pitying the girl. It was also over dinner that the girl let loose a steady stream of worries. Topping the list was pneumonia, which was suspected with every minor cough. Then there was dysentery, the specter of which was raised with every loose stool. Every rash was either chicken pox or measles. "You should not get so attached," Rasheed said one night. "What do you mean?""I was listening to the radio the other night. Voice of America. I heard an interesting statistic. They said that in Afghanistan one out of four children will die before the age of five. That's what they said. Now, they-What? What? Where are you going? Come back here. Get back here this instant!"He gave Mariam a bewildered look. "What's the matter with her?" That night, Mariam was lying in bed when the bickering started again.

It was a hot, dry summer night, typical of the month ofSaratan in Kabul. Mariam had opened her window, then shut it when no breeze came through to temper the heat, only mosquitoes. She could feel the heat rising from the ground outside, through the wheat brown, splintered planks of the outhouse in the yard, up through the walls and into her room. Usually, the bickering ran its course after a few minutes, but half an hour passed and not only was it still going on, it was escalating. Mariam could hear Rasheed shouting now. The girl's voice, underneath his, was tentative and shrill. Soon the baby was wailing. Then Mariam heard their door open violently. In the morning, she would find the doorknob's circular impression in the hallway wall.

Download

Copyright Disclaimer:
This site does not store any files on its server. We only index and link to content provided by other sites. Please contact the content providers to delete copyright contents if any and email us, we'll remove relevant links or contents immediately.