 Hello and welcome to our video summarizing all you need to know about The Thousand Spended Sons by Khaled Hosseini. My name is Barbara and in this video we'll examine this novel in detail. We'll begin by looking at the context regarding the author himself. We'll then go into lots of detail about the novel, its key characters, the plot, important themes to understand as well as key quotations to remember. And this video is really useful if you're studying this novel as part of your coursework studies or your exams. So let's get started. Now to begin with the author himself. Khaled Hosseini was born in Kabul, Afghanistan in 1965. His father was a diplomat in the Afghan Foreign Ministry and his mother taught Farsi at history in high school in Kabul. In 1976, the Foreign Ministry relocated the Hosseini family to Paris. They were ready to return to Kabul in 1980 but by then their homeland had witnessed a bloody communist coup and the invasion of the Soviet army. The Hosseini sought and were granted political asylum in the US and in September 1980 they moved to San Jose, California. Hosseini graduated from high school in 1984 and he enrolled at Santa Clara University where he earned a bachelor's degree in biology in 1988. The following year he entered the University of California San Diego School of Medicine where he earned a medical degree in 1993. In March 2001, while practicing medicine, Hosseini began writing his first novel, The Kite Runner, which was published in 2003 and do make sure you check out our video summary of The Kite Runner on our channel. Today, Hosseini is one of the most recognized and best-selling authors globally. His books The Kite Runner, A Thousand Splendid Suns and The Mountains Echoed have been published in over 70 countries and they're sold over 40 million copies worldwide. Now to go into detail on the novel A Thousand Splendid Suns. It's split into several parts and it begins in the early 1970s when Mariam is a teenager living with her mother Nana in a coal bar which is also known as a small hut outside of the city of Harat. We learn that Miriam is the illegitimate child or Harami of Nana, her mother and Jalil who is a wealthy cinema owner in Harat. Mariam is taught to recite verses from the Quran by Mullah Faizullah whom she looks up to and admires. Jalil comes to visit Mariam every week and though Nana tries to convince Mariam that Jalil is embarrassed by her and refuses to consider her a true member of the family, in Mariam's eyes he can do no wrong. One day, against Jalil's wishes, Mariam descends the hill into Harat for the very first time in order to see him for herself. She's told he isn't there at his home and after spending the entire night sleeping in his stoop, his chauffeur brings her back to the coal bar, though not before she has a glimpse of Jalil looking down at her from the window of his room. Upon their return, Mariam sees her mother hanging from a rope. She's killed herself and this leads Mariam to feel desperately guilty, especially now that she knows that Nana was right about Jalil. He is indeed ashamed and embarrassed of her. She loads Jalil even more once he marries her off to Rashid who is a shoe shop owner in Kabul and he's 30 years older than her. Mariam moves to Kabul and in Kabul she's astounded by the cosmopolitan atmosphere, though Rashid makes her wear a burqa and he also forces her to mainly stay within the home. Rashid initially shows Mariam around the city and buys her gifts to appease her, especially given that she's so homesick, but after she suffers multiple miscarriages he becomes quite sullen, ultimately he grows hostile, yells at her and then begins domestically abusing and beating her. Now shifting into part 2 of the novel, this shifts to the perspective of a young woman called Layla who's growing up in Kabul not far from Rashid and Mariam's house, but in contrast to Mariam, she's getting an education thanks to her very progressive father called Babi. But Mami, her mother, is depressed and unable to care for Layla because she misses her two sons Ahmad and Noor who have gone to fight with the Mujahideen against the Soviets because this is a time when there was a war within Afghanistan against the USSR and the Mujahideen was a rebel faction that grew to dislike them and also to ultimately fight them. Mami's depression grows worse even more after she learns that her two sons who served in the Mujahideen are killed. However, Layla has a far more happy childhood because she has a loving father and from her walks home from school with her friends Gitti and Hasina she has lots of lessons and above all she has a very close relationship with her friend Tariq who's an interesting character who's lost one leg due to a landmine accident when he was young and he was five years old. Tariq and Layla's relationship is very interesting because together they witness the departure of the Soviets from Afghanistan when they are defeated by the Mujahideen. Their relationship ultimately turns romantic just as the Mujahideen's in-fighting of the civil war begins and they sleep together for the first time just before Tariq's family flees to Pakistan as a result of this civil war. Not long after that Layla's family is preparing to leave as well when a rocket hits their home and kills both of her parents instantly making Layla an orphan. Now shifting into part three of the novel this alternates in perspective between both Mariam's and Layla's point of view in each chapter. We find that Rashid rescues Layla as he digs her out of the rubble of their home and Mariam slowly nurses her back to health. However it soon becomes clear that Rashid's apparent kindness has hidden his true goal to make Layla his second wife. Mariam first begs him not to but Rashid threatens to turn Layla out onto the streets. Layla agrees to wed Rashid and then at this stage she's become pregnant with Tariq's child and knows this is the only way she can save the baby and herself. Mariam despises Layla and the two live together in constant tension and low simmering hostility. Not long afterward a man named Abdul Sharif comes to the house and says he was in a hospital with Tariq whose lorry, a truck, had been caught in a crossfire on the way to Pakistan and Tariq was gravely wounded and Abdul Sharif tells her he died. Rashid is initially solicitous and adoring of Layla. After Layla gives birth to a baby girl called Aziza, however he grows again quite irritable and even violent and angry that it was not a boy that she gave birth to. At one point Layla tries to stop Rashid from beating Mariam. This small act leads the tensions between the two women to cool down and after drinking several cups of chai which is tea together they start to become close friends and allies rather than adversaries. Layla confides in Mariam that she's been stealing bit by bit from Rashid and she plans to escape to Pakistan in the spring. Together with Aziza the two of them depart for the Kabul bus station and ask a kind looking man to pretend that he's their cousin accompanying them out of the city. The Mujahideen at this stage prevent women from traveling alone. However this man betrays them and Layla and Mariam a question before being taken back to Rashid's home where they're both beaten severely and locked into separate rooms. The Taliban then take control of Afghanistan shortly afterwards and begin to implement strict sharia law which is a strict set of religious laws that prevent women from working and severely restrict the freedom and mobility. Around the same time Layla realizes she's pregnant with Rashid's child. She comes close to aborting the child on her own but ends up deciding that she can't accept what the Mujahideen had accepted that sometimes in war innocent life must be taken. She then gives birth to a boy Zulmai in a harrowing caesarean at the only women's hospital open in Kabul which no longer has any anesthetic. Zulmai is cheerful and playful but he also has a really malicious streak that comes out when he's with his father who spoils him whilst largely ignoring Aziza. Several years later during a massive drought Rashid loses his business in a fire and the family begins to go hungry. Mariam tries to call her out to speak with Jalil but learns that he died back in 1987 not long after he came to Kabul to see Mariam but she refused to see him as she was still very angry at him marrying her off. Rashid forces Layla to send Aziza into an orphanage. He rarely agrees to accompany her and Mariam to see Aziza though when he doesn't Layla leaves on her own and endures frequent beatings by the Taliban for being a woman on the street alone just because she's going to see her daughter. One day Layla, Mariam and Zulmai are returning from the orphanage when Zulmai calls out that there's a strange man outside the house. It's Tariq and it turns out that Rashid had hired Abdul Sharif to concoct the story of his death in order to force Layla to accept her marriage to Rashid. Instead Tariq had made it to refugee camp. There he had attempted to make money for his family by transporting coats across the Pakistani border but the police found drugs inside the coat. He'd then been imprisoned for seven years before leaving for Marie Pakistan and saving up money by working at a hotel. Layla tells him about Aziza and they make plans for him to meet her. That night however Zulmai tells Rashid about the strange man that Layla was talking to. Rashid sends him upstairs and begins to beat Layla and Mariam. When Layla hits him back Rashid flies on top of her and begins choking her. Mariam seeing he means to kill her takes a shovel from the tall shed and breaks it over Rashid's head instantly killing him. Mariam initially confronts Layla by convincing her that they can run away together and lead a quiet peaceful life in a small village somehow or somewhere. However in the next day Mariam tells her that she cannot allow Layla and her family to suffer for Mariam's own actions. She says she could never have hoped for the love and sense of belonging she experienced through her friendship with Layla. Mariam turns herself into the Taliban and after a brief trial she's imprisoned and then sent to Ghazi's stadium to be executed. Now in part four of the novel this opens with Layla and Tariq living in Mooray and working at a hotel. Though Layla enjoys her life in Pakistan she knows that Mariam did not sacrifice herself so that she could be made in a foreign country. The family returns to Afghanistan first stopping at Herat. Layla meets Mullah Fazullah's son Hamza and sees where Mariam grew up. Hamza gives her a box that Jalil had left for Mariam which includes a letter in which Jalil asks for Mariam's forgiveness and encloses her part of the inheritance a token arriving too late for Mariam. The novel closes with Layla working at the same orphanage where she had sent to Ziza teaching and working to renovate the building. She's pregnant with her third child and knows that if it's a girl the baby will be named Mariam. Now when it comes to the character the first is Mariam. She's one of the novel's protagonists and as we already know she's the illegitimate daughter of the most successful businessman of the city Jalil. She grows up in a small hut several kilometers outside of the city with her mother Nana before being married off at the age of 15 to Rashid whose 30 years her senior and then moving on to Kabul. Throughout her life Mariam is plagued by the shame of being a Harami, in other words a bastard which is an illegitimate child. In addition to the greater shame of believing she contributed to her mother's suicide. After feeling unwanted by and unimportant to Jalil she's also shunned by her husband when she's unable to bear him a child. This lack of love and belonging is a constant theme throughout Mariam's life but she has a remarkable ability to endure and persevere through suffering often with the help of the Quran verses that she spent her childhood memorizing. After finally finding a sense of belonging with Layla and her daughter Mariam makes her ultimate sacrifice giving up her own life so that those she loves can be free. She's one of the novel's most powerful examples of both the suffering and the strength of women in Afghanistan. The next character is Layla and unlike Mariam she's a beautiful young girl from an educated family in Kabul whose father is committed to giving her an education and preparing her for life as an independent woman. However Layla suffers in her own way from the coldness of her mother who seems to have abandoned her in favor of her two sons who've gone off to battle and are eventually killed. Layla is curious and intelligent. She retrains a strong sense of Afghanistan's culture and is hopeful for its future. She's also bold and prone to risk taking as evidence by her love affair with Tariq as a teenager and her plot to escape Rashid and by her constant commitment to make it the orphanage to visit her daughter Aziza despite the possibility of beatings by the Taliban. Ultimately however Layla is not as tough or as world weary as Mariam though she remains forever cognizant of the tremendous sacrifice Mariam has made of her. It is this sense of debt to Mariam, to her family and to Afghanistan that will determine her return to Afghanistan after her exile in Pakistan with Tariq. The next important character is Rashid. He is the undeniable villain of the novel. He owns a shoe shop in Kabul and is initially a successful businessman though as things unravel on Afghanistan he ends up struggling and eventually losing his business. Before marrying Mariam he'd already been married once before but his wife and son had died. His son drowned while Rashid was drunk and passed out. He's initially kind and solicitous to Mariam but soon he becomes a grunting hoster of Bondorf nerves who treats Mariam with scorn and beats her. The same process is repeated when he marries Layla after her parents deaths. Rashid becomes increasingly violent to both his wives up until the books climax. Rashid doesn't mind the Taliban and indeed his character is meant to reveal the worst of men's treatment of women in Afghanistan during the time span of the novel. Tariq is another important character. He's Layla's childhood friend and eventually her lover and husband. Tariq wears a prosthetic leg since he stepped on landmine at the age of five which blew off his leg. He can be mischievous and goofy and he's always eager to prove his strength by joining in in any fight and defending Layla against any other neighborhood boys. Tariq adores Layla and is unfailingly loyal to her returning to Kabul to find her after years of imprisonment and exile in Pakistan. The other important character is Nana. She's Mariam's mother once made in Jalil's household until she became pregnant with his child. She then banished the kolba which is a heart on a hill after her father disowned her and she becomes very bitter and unhappy. She constantly complains about Jalil to Mariam and admonishes her not to trust any man. Though she can be at times a stifling presence for Mariam, Nana adores her and won't let her attend school so as to keep her close. Nana's suicide after Mariam has gone in search of Jalil will make Mariam feel guilty and ashamed for the rest of her life and harbour regrets about the way she dismissed Nana's warnings. Mullah Faizullah is another important character. He's the village Quran tutor that teaches Mariam to recite the Quran and memorize her daily prayers. Mariam trusts and looks up to him though he cannot fully comfort her during Nana's suicide and though Mariam never sees him again after she leaves Kabul for the rest of the novel his teachings really do serve as a guide for her. She often calls upon what he's taught her as she endures father's suffering. Jalil is another important character. He's Mariam's father and he's a successful cinema owner in Herat who has three wives and nine legitimate children in addition to Mariam who's the illegitimate child. Jalil comes to see Mariam every week when she's a child but he never allows her to visit him in Herat or join the rest of his family there. Jalil does seem conflicted about Mariam but he refuses to see her when she comes on her own accord. Though he seems regretful he also allows his wives to arrange the marriage between Mariam and Rashid. For the rest of the novel there are hints that Jalil deeply regrets the way he acted towards Mariam though it's only at the very end that we learn the extent of his regret and shame. Fariba, whose Laila's mother was originally a curious joyful woman but by the time Laila is growing up she's increasingly depressed at the departure of her two sons to fight in the Majahideen. Their death drives her into further depression and she remains in her room for most of the time unable to take care of Laila and not able to function fully. Mami blames Babi for his inability to stop their sons from leaving and for his bookishness and lack of practical savvy though Laila comes to understand that these accusations really do stem from her grief and desperation. Hakim, whose Laila's father and high school teacher in Kabul before being fired by the Communists is a really important and influential force in Laila's life. Never this he supports the Communist regime's policy of equality between men and women and strongly supports Laila's education even tutoring her himself after it becomes too dangerous for her to go to school. Despite Mami's dismissal of his intellectual leanings Laila admires Babi for his unwavering commitment to his wife but also his commitment to empowering her through education. Zalmai is another important character his Laila's son with Rashid whom she nearly aborts but who she ends up loving just as much as she loves Aziza. When Zalmai is with his father however he becomes cranky and difficult to handle. He misses his father desperately after his death which leads Laila to understand one of the many costs of her happiness. Now when you're thinking about more minor characters there's a few that you need to be aware of. The first is Hamza who's Mullah Faisal's son who meets Laila when she goes to Herat at the very end of the novel and who shows her where Mariam once lived. Ahmad is Laila's older brother who goes off to fight with the Mujahideen against the Soviets and is killed. Nor is the other brother of Ahmad and Laila who's also killed while fighting the Soviets. Abdul Sharif is another important character he's a friend of Rashid's who perhaps paid off by Rashid tells Laila the entirely fabricated story of Tariq's death so that she will no longer await or attempt to find him. Gitti is a schoolmate and friend of Laila's who's quiet and earnest before falling in love with an older boy and becoming more confident. She's killed by a strayed rocket as a teenager. Hesina is another friend of Laila's who's chatty and mischievous. She's sent away to marry a cousin in Lahore. Habib Khan is a village leader who often comes to visit Mariam and Nanar when Mariam is a child and Bibi Jo is an old woman and friend of Nanar's who also visits the two of them at the Colba. We have Karla Brangmal, Laila's teacher during the communist regime who's wholeheartedly committed to the communist cause and also the liberation and education of women. Afsun is one of Jalil's official wives. Nulufah is Afsun's daughter. Nargis is another of Jalil's wife. Saide is one of Mariam's half-sisters who, unlike Mariam, is sent to school in Herat. Nahid is another of Mariam's half-sisters who attend school. Yannis is Rashid's first son who's round in a lake as a child while Rashid had passed out from drinking. Kadeem is a neighborhood troublemaker who pulls practical jokes and Laila and Till Tariq beats him and puts an end to it. We have Wakil who's a man whom Laila asks to accompany her and Mariam and Aziza on the bus to Pakistan when they attempt to escape but then he betrays them to the Mujahideen. Zaman is a kindly orphanage director who looks after Aziza and eventually becomes Zaila's partner in the orphanage renovation. Salim is a friend of Tariq's from prison who puts him in touch with his brother Saeed. Saeed is the owner of a hotel in Murray, Pakistan who hires Tariq and eventually Laila and helps the two of them settle as exiles there. Nakhma is a woman in the jail with Mariam. The taxi driver drives Bibi, Laila and Tariq to the Baniman Valley. Aziza is a daughter of Laila and Tariq and Khadija is one of Jalil's wives. Now when it comes to themes there's several important themes and underlying ideas that constantly run throughout this novel. The first is love, loyalty and belonging. Now in the Thousand Spended Suns love may not conquer all but it's a stronger tie than many other social bonds from social class to ethnic status. Love makes the novel's characters act sometimes in very irrational ways and their erratic behaviour can often be explained by the strong loyalty that stems from love. Mariam's love for her father Jalil remains constant despite hints that he's ashamed of her Harami status. She ultimately turns her back on him only out of love for her own mother. The poignant scene at the end of the novel when Laila receives a letter from Jalil meant from Mariam makes clear that his love for her was never entirely stamped out. Laila in turn believes that by marrying Rashid and thus saving her and Tariq's baby she's remaining loyal to Tariq even after his death. Laila's love for Tariq also transcends ethnic boundaries, often a source of tension and violence in Afghanistan as she is a Tajik and he is Pashtun. Though love can cross social boundaries in the novel it's also a way to create a territory of belonging. Tariq and Laila band together in love against the destruction and suffering around them. While Mariam initially believes to find her marriage to Rashid a place where she can finally belong, her final dramatic act of killing Rashid is paradoxically based on her close relationship with Laila. The novel portrays such an act though morally complex as a powerful statement of love, the love that Mariam has eventually developed for Laila as a sister and as a mother. Gender relations are another important theme. By telling the story over the thousand-spended sons through the perspective of two Afghan women Mariam and Laila Hussaini can emphasize certain aspects of Afghan life and history that differ from the established historical narrative that often seems to be driven usually by the male perspective. The novel in fact draws on the limitations imposed on women in Afghan life in order to explore how women have lived, enjoyed and subverted these constraints. Gender relations differ throughout the novel depending on the occupying forces and laws that accompany them. Under communist rule for instance girls are permitted to attend school and work outside the home. Babi celebrates this status and encourages Laila to take advantage of it. At the same time however girls are discouraged from spending too much time with members of the opposite sex before they're married. Gender relations can also depend on specific traditional or regional norms Mariam for instance is required by a husband to wear a burqa long before this becomes law. Men like Laila's brother are the ones who go off to fight while the women stay at home and often must deal with the repercussions of war. The relatively progressive gender norms under communism change drastically with the arrival of the Majaheddin and eventually the Taliban. For Laila the restrictions have the effect of taking Kibble, the city that she always thought of as hers, away from her, limiting her freedom of speech and movement. Even so the characters find ways to subvert these norms. Laila sneaks across the town to an orphanage and with Mariam she plans an escape the ultimately a thwarted one from Rashid. The Taliban may have legally sanctioned Rashid's violent beatings but Hussaini is clearly on the side of greater freedoms for women and the reader is meant to cheer on Laila and Mariam as they struggle against these inequalities. The next important theme is reputation and shame. So a particular kind of suffering in the novel has to do with shame which comes up again and again as both a pain to be endured and a toll to inflict on others. In the first case shame is linked to responsibility and ensuing guilt for an incident in the characters past. Mariam's mother's suicide after Mariam runs away to Jalal is one example of such shame. Laila feels her own sense of shame for having survived the bombing that killed her parents purely by luck. Another type of shame is intimately linked to social standing and reputation and that particular type of shame has the power to inflict deep psychological damage. As a Harami Mariam is made to feel deeply ashamed by her father Jalal's family, by others in the village and by her husband Rashid. She becomes convinced as a result that she does not deserve to be loved and will never find a place where she belongs. By beating both Mariam and Laila Rashid combines psychological and physical harm making them feel pain but also shaming them and asserting his own power over them. We see then how shame is both intimately personal and extremely political. Many of the Taliban's laws particularly regarding the status of women consider women as shameful though extraordinarily powerful creatures that must be barred from the public sphere. These standards are often couched in terms of protecting women's honour though honour in the novel is quite often used as a counterpart to shame. Suffering and perseverance is another important theme so none of the characters in the novel are strangers to pain and suffering either physical or emotional. However this suffering takes different forms. The loss of loved ones brings its own acute kind of pain often in a way that seems to lack any kind of redemption. On the other hand there are other types of suffering that the characters willingly endure in the service of others. This novel seems to grapple with how to create a hierarchy of grief and suffering. Is the loss of Laila's brothers for instance after Babi or so Mami accuses him allowed them to fight in the Majahideen. Is this loss somehow worse than the random rocket that killed Laila's friend Giti? The characters grapple with such suffering in different ways. Mami, Laila's mother, takes refuge in her dark bedroom following her son's deaths and never quite seems to overcome her grief. Laila however is more pragmatic. She marries Rashid not despite but because of her parents death which she seizes her only option. The novel seems to promote this kind of perseverance over the immobilisation that can stem from suffering. Though the suffering that the characters have experienced might be impossible to undo there's a value and strength to be drawn from their ability to endure. This is especially the case when the characters choose willingly to suffer. Laila for instance willingly submits to beatings by the Taliban for travelling as a woman alone just so that she has the chance of seeing and spending time with her daughter Aziza at the orphanage. Maram of course chooses to kill Rashid so as to give Laila a chance of a better life knowing all the same that she will be convicted and executed by the Taliban as a result. Disabilities to suffer willingly for the benefit of others is portrayed as something women in particular excel at. From Laila's horrifically painful childbirth to Mariam's sacrifice women endure their own suffering and even add it to themselves. History and memory in Afghanistan is another important theme. As Laila, Babi and Tariq drive out on a day trip from Afghanistan the taxi driver tells them about the tumultuous history of the region. He concludes and that my friends is the story of our country, one invader after the other. The novel deals with a 30-year swath of Afghan history. It begins with the Soviet occupation of Afghanistan and up until the withdrawal in 1989 and it continues through the infighting among the image of Hadid throughout the 1990s. The book ends shortly after the events of September 11, 2001 which introduced many Americans to Afghanistan for the first time. Many events in the personal lives of these characters in fact are tightly bound to political events and the narrator uses history as a reference point for the novel's action. Through it all the main characters retain a hold on what they consider the true Afghanistan distinct from those invaders who may hold power over the country at any one time. There are often competing notions of the true Afghanistan depending on the characters political opinions and beliefs. Babi for instance is distraught by an Afghanistan where women cannot participate equally while for Rashid such inequality epitomizes the type of country that Afghanistan should be. The reader however is clearly meant to take Babi's side. The narrator also often stresses the natural beauty and ancient history of Afghanistan which helped define it. The Taliban's destruction of the ancient buddhas visited Balala for instance is portrayed as a devastating attack against the nation itself. Despite the multiple invasions bombings and massacres, Layla and Mariam are able to keep the notion of Afghanistan intact through their own memories. For Layla, they're happier times of her childhood and from Mariam the joy she gained from building a bond with Layla and her children. Its Layla's continued memory of Afghanistan that compelled her to return despite the violence at the end of the novel. Female friendship is another important theme. Though gender norms shift throughout the course of the novel as a result of changing occupations and laws, one constant theme is friendship between women. The relationship between Mariam and Layla rests at the heart of the novel even as its structure reveals. Part one takes Mariam's perspective, part two takes Layla's, part three alternates between them. Layla also treasures her friendship with her classmates Gitti and Hasina with whom she shares laughs, games and secrets about boys, forgetting for a time about the violence and dangers of their adolescence. By the time the Majahideen imposed their own restrictions on the place of women in Afghanistan, female friendships becomes one way to subvert these restrictions from within. Mariam and Layla for instance, band together against Rashid, the husband of both in the source of much of their suffering. Most drastically, this takes the form of their plot to escape. But in more subtle ways, the time they spend together drinking tea, joking and laughing allows them to draw strength from each other and endure their oppression. Even in a society where women cannot participate in the public sphere, the books suggest relationships between women serve not only as a source of escape, but as a means to assert their own legitimacy and dignity. Now there are several quotes that you need to remember, especially if you're writing a piece of coursework, but even if you're sitting an exam on this book in particular. Now when it comes to part one, in chapter one, one of the quotes to think about is, she understood then what Nana meant, that A, Harami, was an unwanted thing that she, Mariam, was an illegitimate person who'd never have legitimate claims to the things other people had, things such as love, family, home and acceptance. The related characters here are Mariam and Nana, and related themes are suffering and perseverance, shame and reputation, love, loyalty and belonging. From chapter three, the quote goes, it's our lot in life, Mariam, women like us, we endure, it's all we have, do you understand? The related characters in this piece of dialogue are Nana, who's a speaker and Mariam, and related themes are suffering and perseverance as well as gender relations. In chapter six, the quote goes, for the first time, Mariam could hear Jalil with Nana's ears. She could hear so clearly now the insincerity that had always lurked beneath, the hollow false assurances. One could not counter the moons that shimmer on her roofs, or the thousand-spented suns that hide behind her walls. Related characters in this case are Mariam, the speaker and Jalil, and related themes are suffering and perseverance, shame and reputation, love, loyalty and belonging. From chapter 10, the quote goes, but I'm a different breed of man, Mariam. Where I come from, one wrong look, one improper word, and blood is spilled. Where I come from, a woman's face is her husband's business only. I want you to remember that, do you understand? The related characters are Rich Street, who's a speaker and Mariam, and themes are suffering, perseverance, shame and reputation and gender relations. From chapter 15, the quote goes, it wasn't easy tolerating him talking this way to her, to bear his scorn, his ridicule, his insult. He's walking past her like she was nothing but her house cat. But after four years of marriage, Mariam saw clearly how much a woman could tolerate when she was afraid. And the related characters here are Mariam and Rich Street, and related themes are gender relations, suffering and perseverance, shame and reputation, and love, loyalty and belonging. From chapter 16, the quote goes, I know you're still young, but I want you to understand this now, he said. Marriage can wait, education cannot. You're a very, very bright girl, truly you are. You can bend anything you want, Layla. I know this about you. And I also know that when this war is over, Afghanistan is going to need you as much as its men, maybe even more, because a society has no chance of success if its women are uneducated, Layla, no chance. The related characters are Babi, Hakim, who's the father of Layla and Layla herself, and related themes are history and memory in Afghanistan and gender relations. From chapter 18, to me, it's nonsense and very dangerous at that. All this talk of I'm Tajik and you're Pashtun and he's Hazara and she's Uzbek. We're all Afghans and that's all that should matter. But when one group rules over the others for so long, this contempt, rivalry, there is, there's always been. The speaker here is Hakim and the related themes are history and memory, suffering and perseverance. From chapter 19, it was hard to feel, really feel Mammy's loss. Hard to summon sorrow, to grieve the deaths of people Layla had never really thought of as alive in the first place. Ahmad and Noor had always been like law to her, like characters in a fable, kings in a history book. It was Tariq who was real, flesh and blood. The related characters from this quote are Layla, Tariq, Fariba, Ahmad and Noor, and related themes are suffering and perseverance, love, loyalty and belonging. Another quote from chapter 21, and that my young friends is the story of our country, one invader after another, Macedonians, Sassians, Arabs, Mongols, now the Soviet, but we're like those walls up there battered and nothing too pretty to look at but still standing. The speaker here is a taxi driver and related themes are history and memory in Afghanistan and suffering and perseverance. Taking from chapter 23, by the time you're 20, Hasina used to say, Giti and I will have pushed out four, five kids each, but you Layla, you'll make us two dummies proud. You're going to be somebody. I know one day I'll pick up a newspaper and find your picture on the front page. The characters here are Hasina, who's a speaker, Layla and Giti, and the themes are gender relations and female friendship. Now taking from chapter 26, this first quote, there would come a day, in fact years later, when Layla would no longer be well his loss, or not as relentlessly, not nearly. There would come a day when the details of his face would begin to slip from memory's grief. When overhearing a mother in the street called after her child by Tariq's name, would no longer cut her adrift. 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. The related characters in this quote are Layla and Tariq and related themes are suffering and perseverance and love, loyalty and belonging. Another quote taken from this chapter, all day this perma-back cabal has been bouncing around in my head. Saib E. Tabrizzi wrote it back in the 17th century, I think. I used to know the whole poem, but all I can remember now is two lines. One could not count the moons that shimmer on her roofs, or the thousand-spreaded suns that hide behind the walls. The related character here, the speaker, is Hekim, Layla's father, and related themes are history and memory, suffering and perseverance and the symbols here are the poem by Sabiz E. Tabrizzi. The quote from chapter 27 to remember is, The girl was looking back as if waiting for Miriam to pass on some more sort of wisdom to say something encouraging, but what wisdom did Miriam have to offer? What encouragement? Miriam remembered the day that buried Nana, and how little comfort she'd found when Mullah Fazullah had quoted the Quran for her. The related characters for this quote are Miriam, Layla, Nana, and Mullah Fazullah, and the related theme is suffering and perseverance. Another quote taken from chapter 28, She was remembering the day the man from Panjshir had come to deliver the news of Ahmad and Noor's death. She remembered Babi, white-faced, slumping on the coach, and Mammy, her hand flying to her mouth when she heard. Layla had watched Mammy come and done that day, and it scared her, but she hadn't felt any true sorrow. She hadn't understood the awfulness of her mother's loss. Now, another stranger bringing news for another death. Now, she was the one sitting in the chair. Was this her penalty then, her punishment for being aloof to her mother's suffering? The related characters here are Layla, Tariq, Fariba, Hakeem, Ahmad and Noor, and related themes are suffering and perseverance, love, loyalty, and belonging, and she had a reputation. Another quote taken from chapter 30 is, But miraculously, something of a former life remained, her last link to the person that she'd been before should come so utterly undone. A part of Tariq's door, alive inside her, sprouting tiny little arms, growing to translucent hands. How could she jeopardize the only thing she'd left of him, her old life? The related characters in this quote is Layla and Tariq, and related themes are suffering and perseverance, love, loyalty, and belonging. Taking from chapter 34, Layla examined Mariam's drooping cheeks, the eyelids that sagged in tired folds, the deep lines that framed her mouth. She saw these things as though she too were looking at someone for the first time. And for the first time, it was not an aversary's face Layla saw, but the face of grievances unspoken, burdens gone unprotested, a destiny submitted to and endured. The related characters here are Mariam and Layla, and related themes are suffering, perseverance, and female friendship. Now, the first quote to consider from chapter 35 is, Why have you pinned your heart to an old, ugly hag like me? Mariam would murmur into Aziza's hair. I am nobody, don't you see? A dehati. What have I got to give you? But Aziza only muttered contentedly and dug her face in deeper, and when she did that, Mariam swooned, her eyes watered, her heart took flight, and she marveled at how, after all these years of rattling loose, she had found in this little creature the first true connection of her life of false filled connections. The related character in this quotation is Mariam and related themes are suffering, perseverance, love, loyalty, and belonging. The other quote from this chapter is, Mariam had passed these years in a distant corner of her mind, a dry barren field, out beyond dream and disillusionment. There the future didn't matter, and the past held only this wisdom, that love was a damaging mistake and it's a complex hope, a treacherous illusion. The related character for this theme is Mariam and related themes are suffering and perseverance, love, loyalty, and belonging. The quote from chapter 38 to consider, Layla dropped the spoke because she could not accept what the Mujahideen readily had, that sometimes in war innocent life had to be taken. Her war was against Rashid, the baby was blameless, and had been enough killing already. Layla had seen enough killing of innocents caught in the crossfire of enemies. The related characters for this quote are Layla and Rashid and related themes are suffering and perseverance. A quote taken from chapter 41 goes, Mariam regretted her foolish youthful pride now. She wished now that she had let him in. What would have been the harm to let him in? Sit with him, let him say what he'd come to say. He was her father. He'd not been a good father, it was true, but how ordinary his fault seemed now forgivable when compared to Rashid's malice, or to the brutality and violence that she had seen men inflict on one another. Related characters for this quote are Mariam, Rashid, and Jalil, and related themes are suffering and perseverance, shame, reputation, love, loyalty, and belonging. Taking from chapter 42, Layla thought of Aziza's stutter and of what Aziza had said earlier about fractures and powerful collisions deep down, and how sometimes all we see on the surface is a slight tremor. Related character for this quote is Layla and the related theme is suffering and perseverance. A quote taken from chapter 47, 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 20 paces, she could not help but wish for more of it. Yet as she closed her eyes, it was not regret any longer, but a sensation of abundant peace that washed over her. She thought of her entry into this world, the Harami daughter of a lowly villager, an unintended thing, a pitiful regrettable instant, a weed, and yet she was leaving the world as a woman who had loved and been loved back. The related character for this quote is Mariam and the themes are suffering perseverance, shame, reputation, female friendship, love, loyalty, and belonging. So that's all. If you found this video useful, do give us a thumbs up, but also make sure you visit our website which is www.firstreadtutor.com. There you will find lots of essay practice questions, sample papers, as well as model answers which you can use as part of your studies for this novel or in that case, other novels within English literature. Thank you so much for listening.