The moment is brief, barely enough for a flutter of the pulse but long enough for her illusory self to catch up with the reality of the woman gazing back from the shopwindow. It is a little devastatin...
That there was in her life the absence of something, or someone, fundamental to her own existence. Sometimes it was vague, like a message sent across shadowy byways and vast distances, a weak signal o...
That night, Zalmai wakes up coughing. Before Laila can move, Tariq swings his legs over the side of the bed. He straps on his prosthesis and walks over to Zalmai, lifts him up into his arms. From the...
That night, I waited until Baba fell asleep, and then folded a blanket. I used it as a prayer rug. Bowing my head to the ground, I recited half-forgotten verses from the Koran-verses the mullah had ma...
She considers for a minute before saying, I should have been more kind. That is something a person will never regret. You will never say to yourself when you are old, Ah, I wish I was not good to that...
Maman had been a gifted writer. Pari has read every word Maman had written in French and every poem she had translated from Farsi as well. The power and beauty of her writing was undeniable. But if th...
Love is a delicate thing that needs to be cosseted and protected. Love is not robust and love is not unyielding. Love can crumble under a few harsh words, or be tossed away with a handful of careless...
Look at me, Mariam.'Reluctantly, Mariam did.Nana said, '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. Yo...
Joseph shall return to Canaan, grieve not,Hovels shall turn to rose gardens, grieve not.If a flood should arrive, to drown all that's alive, Noah is your guide in the typhoon's eye, grieve not.
If I ever do get married, Tariq said, they'll have to make room for three on the wedding stage. Me, the bride, and the guy holding the gun to my head
I'm sorry, Laila says, marveling at how every Afghan story is marked by death and loss and unimaginable grief. And yet, she sees, people find a way to survive, to go on.
I wondered if that was how forgiveness budded, not with the fanfare of epiphany, but with pain gathering its things, packing up, and slipping away unannounced in the middle of the night.
I wished I could open my veins and drain his cursed blood from my body.
I throw my makeshift , my prayer rug, on the floor and I get on my knees, lower my forehead to the ground, my tears soaking through the sheet. I bow to the west. Then I remember I haven’t prayed for o...
I brought Hassan’s son from Afghanistan to America, lifting him from the certainty of turmoil and dropping him in a turmoil of uncertainty
Her şeye, devasa olasılık oranlarına rağmen, kontrol edemediğin bir dünyanın, kaybetmeyi kaldıramayacağın tek şeyi elinden almayacağına dair, son derece tekinsiz ve akıl almaz aptallıkta bir inanç duy...
He's a boy, you see, and, as such, what does he care about reputation? But you? The reputation of a girl, especially one as pretty as you, is a delicate thing, Laila. Like a mynah bird in your hands....
For you, a thousand times over. Then I turned and ran. It was only a smile, nothing more. It didn't make everything alright. It didn't make anything all right. Only a smile. A tiny thing. But I'll tak...
For an hour or two every Thursday, when Jalil came to see her, all smiles and gifts and endearments, Mariam felt deserving of all the beauty and bounty that life had to give. And, for this, Mariam lov...
EB: Perhaps it's her way of rebelling. You know a thing or two about rebellion, I think. NW: Yes, but I did it the proper way. I drank and smoked and took lovers. Who rebels with mathematics?