50 Fun Facts About A Thousand Splendid Suns

In A Thousand Splendid Suns, what does Mariam use to kill Rasheed as he strangles Laila?

A shovel ends Rasheed's life after decades of beatings. Mariam swings it twice, and sees the blow as the first real choice she has ever made for herself.

Which Disney film does Mariam's father break his promise to show her in A Thousand Splendid Suns?

Pinocchio is the cartoon he never takes her to; she walks to his house instead and sleeps outside his gate. Decades later a videotape of it turns up in the box he left for her.

In A Thousand Splendid Suns, what is the trade of Rasheed, the Kabul widower Mariam is made to marry at fifteen?

A shoemaker with his own shop, Rasheed is about thirty years older than his bride. He has already lost a first wife and a young son.

Khaled Hosseini published A Thousand Splendid Suns as the follow-up to which bestselling debut novel?

The Kite Runner came out in 2003 and spent more than 100 weeks on the New York Times bestseller list. Its main characters were almost all men, which pushed Hosseini to write about Afghan women next.

In A Thousand Splendid Suns, which Hollywood film becomes a craze in Taliban-ruled Kabul through smuggled copies?

Titanic fever grips the drought-stricken city, and all kinds of goods on sale are soon named after the film. Laila thinks everyone simply wants to be rescued.

In A Thousand Splendid Suns, what does Laila undergo without anaesthetic in a Taliban-era women's hospital in Kabul?

A caesarean is the only way to deliver her breech child, and the hospital has no anaesthetic, clean water or electricity. Laila tells the surgeon to go ahead anyway.

In A Thousand Splendid Suns, Mariam grows up in a hut outside which western Afghan city, home to her father?

Herat is where Hosseini's own parents came from. Mariam leaves it on a bus as a bride and never returns; Laila makes the journey for her at the novel's end.

In A Thousand Splendid Suns, where does Rasheed make Laila send her daughter when the family is close to starving?

An orphanage in Kabul takes the girl in, and its kindly director secretly teaches the children behind drawn curtains. Laila and Tariq later help him rebuild it.

In A Thousand Splendid Suns, which historic site does Laila's father take her and Tariq to see on a day trip?

The Bamiyan Buddhas tower over the valley as he tells the children to see their country's heritage for themselves. Years later Laila hears that the Taliban have blown the statues up.

Before bestsellers such as A Thousand Splendid Suns, Khaled Hosseini spent over ten years working as what?

A doctor until his debut's success let him retire, Hosseini likened practising medicine to an arranged marriage. His father was a diplomat and his mother taught Persian.

In A Thousand Splendid Suns, which word for an illegitimate child is five-year-old Mariam called by her own mother?

Harami is the slur she hears after breaking a piece of her mother's tea set. She is too young to know what it means, and it shadows her for the rest of her life.

In A Thousand Splendid Suns, which wealthy businessman with three wives is Mariam's father and weekly visitor?

Jalil owns a cinema and is one of the richest men in his city, yet keeps Mariam hidden away to spare his legitimate family. His letter of regret is opened only after she is dead.

In A Thousand Splendid Suns, what does Rasheed order Mariam to wear outdoors in her first weeks as his wife?

A burqa is what he hands her soon after the wedding, insisting a wife's face is for her husband alone. Taliban law would not demand one for more than twenty years.

In A Thousand Splendid Suns, what does Rasheed force Mariam to chew to show his contempt for her cooking?

Pebbles are pushed into her mouth, and biting down breaks two of her teeth. The scene comes four years and seven miscarriages into the marriage.

In A Thousand Splendid Suns, what cost Laila's childhood friend and first love Tariq one of his legs?

A land mine took the leg before he was even a teenager. At the end of the novel Tariq works for a charity that fits other victims with artificial limbs.

In A Thousand Splendid Suns, what secret makes the orphaned Laila agree so quickly to marry Rasheed?

She is pregnant by Tariq, whom she believes dead, so a fast wedding lets Rasheed think the child is his. The stranger who reported the death had been paid to lie.

In A Thousand Splendid Suns, what name meaning the cherished one does Laila give her firstborn daughter?

Aziza is the child who melts Mariam's coldness, and caring for her turns the two wives from rivals into allies. Rasheed, who wanted a boy, shows the girl no affection.

Khaled Hosseini calls his debut a tale of father and son; how does he describe A Thousand Splendid Suns?

A mother-daughter story is his own phrase for it, since the bond between the two wives grows into that of parent and child. His third novel turned to brothers and sisters.

In A Thousand Splendid Suns, in which Pakistani hill town do Laila and Tariq marry after fleeing Kabul?

Murree is where Tariq had found work at a small hotel after leaving prison. They marry the day they arrive, and the hotel's owner pays for the rings.

In A Thousand Splendid Suns, which world event do Laila and Tariq watch unfold in a Pakistani hotel lobby?

The September 11 attacks reach them on screen two days after news that the commander who fought the Taliban has been killed. Within weeks American bombs are falling on Kabul.

In A Thousand Splendid Suns, what is the Dari word for the small hut where Mariam spends her first fifteen years?

Kolba is the name for the shack her father and his sons built in a clearing outside town, out of sight of his household. Laila finds it run-down and empty at the end.

In A Thousand Splendid Suns, which character warns young Mariam that a man will always find a woman to blame?

Nana, her bitter mother, speaks from experience: once his housekeeper, she was cast out when Mariam's father told his wives that she had forced herself on him.

In A Thousand Splendid Suns, what one skill does Mariam's mother tell her a woman has to learn?

Endurance, in Dari tahamul, is her answer when Mariam asks to go to school; she says lessons would be wasted on a girl like her. Mariam never does see the inside of a classroom.

In A Thousand Splendid Suns, on which day each week does Mariam's father come to fish and draw with her?

Thursday is the day she waits for all week, when he brings gifts and newspaper clippings. The day he fails to collect her for the cinema, on her fifteenth birthday, changes her life.

In A Thousand Splendid Suns, what kills both of Laila's parents as the family packs to flee Kabul?

A rocket hits the house only days after her mother finally agreed to leave. Laila, standing outside, is pulled from the rubble by Rasheed and nursed by Mariam.

In A Thousand Splendid Suns, what does Mariam's mother say enters her body when she suffers her seizures?

A jinn is her name for the fits, and one of them cost her a husband: her wedding to a parakeet seller was called off, and no other suitor ever came.

In A Thousand Splendid Suns, which spoiled son of Rasheed and Laila innocently reveals that Tariq has visited?

Zalmai adores his father and tells him after dinner about his mother's visitor, which triggers the final beating. In exile he slowly learns to accept Tariq.

In A Thousand Splendid Suns, what banned luxury does Rasheed buy for his son, which the wives bury in the yard?

A television and a video player, bought on borrowed money from an underground market, are his proudest gift to the boy. Mariam and Laila dig a hole in the backyard to keep the set from the Taliban.

In A Thousand Splendid Suns, what destroys Rasheed's shop during the drought and leaves the family going hungry?

A fire burns the shop down in the summer of 2000, the worst year of the drought. Rasheed is sacked from two restaurant jobs afterwards, and the children start missing meals.

In A Thousand Splendid Suns, Laila's family is Tajik; to which ethnic group does her neighbour Tariq belong?

Pashtun is the group that has ruled Afghanistan for most of its history, as Laila's father explains to her. He believes in unity and thinks such labels should not divide Afghans.

In A Thousand Splendid Suns, what do young Laila and Tariq use to signal each other from their bedrooms at night?

Flashlights blink between the two houses in a nightly game the neighbours play as children. The friendship turns to love as they grow up and war closes in on Kabul.

In A Thousand Splendid Suns, what does the neighbourhood bully Khadim squirt at Laila from a water pistol?

Urine fills the pistol, as the boys gleefully tell her afterwards. When Tariq gets back from a trip and hears of it, he beats Khadim with his own artificial leg, and the teasing stops.

In A Thousand Splendid Suns, what does Laila's teacher nickname her for being born on the night of the 1978 coup?

Revolutionary Girl, or Inqilabi Girl, is the pet name from a stern communist teacher the pupils call Auntie Painter for the way she slaps them. Laila was born the night Daoud Khan was toppled.

In A Thousand Splendid Suns, where does Laila's father work after the communists dismiss him from teaching?

A bread factory is where the bookish former high-school master ends up. His wife scolds him as a man with no convictions, yet he stays hopeful about the country's future.

In A Thousand Splendid Suns, which school friend of Laila's is killed in the street on her walk home?

Giti had lately fallen for an eighteen-year-old called Sabir and hoped to marry him. Her death devastates Laila, who had felt little when her own soldier brothers died.

In A Thousand Splendid Suns, to which Pakistani city does Laila plan to flee with money stolen from Rasheed?

Peshawar, just across the border, is where she means to go in the spring. She hides the stolen notes in a pouch sewn into the lining of her coat.

In A Thousand Splendid Suns, where are Mariam and Laila betrayed and arrested on their first attempt to escape?

At a bus station in Kabul they ask a stranger to pose as their cousin and buy the tickets. He does, boards, and then whispers to the militiamen on guard.

In A Thousand Splendid Suns, what does Mariam leave outside Laila's door as her first gesture of friendship?

Baby clothes for a girl, sewn years earlier for the child Mariam lost, appear in a pile by the door. That night the two wives share tea and halwa, and the feud is over.

In A Thousand Splendid Suns, why do Taliban patrols beat Laila as she walks to visit her daughter?

She has no male escort, because Rasheed refuses to walk her there and Taliban rules bar women from the streets alone. She keeps going anyway, judging the pain a fair price for a few minutes with her child.

In A Thousand Splendid Suns, how does Mariam make sure Laila and the children can get away after Rasheed's death?

She turns herself in so the Taliban have their culprit and no reason to hunt the others. After ten days in a women's prison she is executed, at peace with a life that ended in love.

In A Thousand Splendid Suns, what do police find hidden in the coat Tariq is paid to carry to another city?

Hashish in the lining earns him seven years in a Pakistani prison, where he learns Urdu and hears that his mother has died. A fellow inmate's brother later gives him a job.

In A Thousand Splendid Suns, which commander, known as the Lion of Panjshir, does Laila's mother admire?

Ahmad Shah Massoud keeps her loyalty because she believes he wants peace. Laila, who saw his forces help wreck Kabul, is unmoved when he is assassinated in 2001.

In A Thousand Splendid Suns, which reclusive leader do the Taliban fighters who take Kabul in 1996 follow?

Mullah Omar is a name the people of Kabul barely know when his fighters drive in. Rasheed welcomes them as bringers of order, and their list of rules is broadcast the next day.

In A Thousand Splendid Suns, which interim leader has taken office in Kabul by the time Laila decides to go home?

Hamid Karzai heads the new government after coalition forces drive the Taliban out. Hearing of schools reopening and women back at work, Laila feels her safe life in exile is too small.

In 2006, A Thousand Splendid Suns author Khaled Hosseini was named a goodwill envoy for which UN agency?

UNHCR is the refugee agency, and a trip to Afghanistan with it in 2007 led him to start a foundation that builds homes for families returning from exile. He was once an asylum seeker himself.

Which novel about a separated brother and sister did Khaled Hosseini publish after A Thousand Splendid Suns?

And the Mountains Echoed arrived six years later and turns on a father's decision to sell his three-year-old girl to a childless couple in Kabul. Hosseini said this one was about siblings.

The title A Thousand Splendid Suns comes from a poem about Kabul by which 17th-century Persian poet?

Saib Tabrizi stayed in Kabul on his travels to the Mughal court. Hosseini found his line in an English translation while hunting for verses for a scene of leaving the city.

In which U.S. city did the first stage adaptation of A Thousand Splendid Suns have its premiere in 2017?

San Francisco's American Conservatory Theater staged it with Theatre Calgary. The play opens with the blast that orphans Laila and tells Mariam's childhood in flashback.

In A Thousand Splendid Suns, what does Laila's father insist must come before any talk of marrying her off?

Her education comes first, he tells her, because Afghanistan will need its women as much as its men once the war is over. Laila is grateful to know she will not be a child bride.

In A Thousand Splendid Suns, which U.S. state does Laila's father imagine the family might one day move to?

California is where Hosseini's own family settled as asylum seekers when he was fifteen. In the novel the dream dies because Laila's mother will not leave the country her sons died for.