A THOUSAND SPLENDID SUNS: PLOT SUMMARY / ANALYSIS

CHAPTER 47: Mariam

Summary

Mariam, it seems, is back in a kolba, after all these years. She is in the Walyat women’s prison. There is no gloass in the windows and no curtains either. The courtyard that looks into the windows is patrolled by Talibs who leer in to get a look at the ladies when they are naked. Because of this, most of the women wear burqas all day, removing them only at night when the guards go to their posts. Mariam shares a cell with five women and four children. There is never any light at night so they lift Naghma, small girl, to their shoulders where she hotwires the only light in the cell. Mariam learns that most of the children have been born in the prison and have never seen life outside it. Their mothers have to use a well that overflows, because there is no drainage, and the water tastes awful. Nonetheless, they do their wash and hang it in the courtyard where they meet up with their vistors. That’s the first and only thing that Mariam asks the Taliban officials: no visitors.

Mariam is the only woman in her cell who is there for a violent crime. Most of the others have been brought her for “running away from home.” As a result, she has obtained a kind of celebrity among them. The women eye her with a reverent, almost awestruck, expression. Naghma is the most avid of her fans, always hugging her........

Notes

This chapter is one of the most poignant ones in the novel. Mariam’s acceptance of the final unkindness in her life without regret or..........

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A Thousand Splendid Suns by Khaled Hosseini: Free BookNotes Summary

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