Chapters 40-41 Summary
Chapter 40
Kabul is in the second year of a severe drought that has driven farmers off their land and into other countries. Lines at the public wells are long, and Mariam and Laila wait for hours just to get a little water for the family. Mariam and Laila dig a large hole in the yard to hide household items from the Taliban. While they work, Zalmai chases his sister, Aziza, around the yard. Zalmai resembles his father in looks, yet when he is alone with Laila, he is a sweet, good-natured boy. However, Zalmai worships his father, so when Rasheed is around, Zalmai resorts to mischievous behavior that Rasheed praises as “a sign of intelligence.” Laila gets to spend little time with her son because Rasheed often takes the boy to his shoe workshop during the day. At home, if Laila asks to hold her son, Rasheed glowers at her.
A few weeks after Zalmai’s second birthday, Rasheed returns home with a full-size television and a VCR. These types of items have been banned by the Taliban; Rasheed purchased them on the black market. Once the television is set up, Aziza pushes the power button, and Rasheed grabs her hand away. Rasheed says the television belongs to Zalmai. Later, after dinner, Rasheed tells Laila that he has borrowed more money than he has let on and that the money from his shoe shop is not enough to continue to sustain the family. He tells her that Aziza will have to beg for money in the streets. Laila protests, and Rasheed slaps her. Laila retorts by punching him in the face, and someone screams in the back of the room. Rasheed walks out of the room; when he returns, he chokes Laila and shoves a gun into her mouth.
After Rasheed’s abuse, the women bury the television in the large hole they have dug in the yard. Afterward, Laila dreams that she and Mariam lower Aziza, not the television, into the hole. Laila tells her daughter that it will only be for a little while, but Aziza fights against the sheet of plastic in which her mother has wrapped her. She fills the hole. Laila wakes from her nightmare out of breath.
Chapter 41
The drought reaches its worst year in the summer of 2000. Entire communities turn nomadic for their survival. The movie Titanic is released, and Aziza forces Mariam to role-play with her. “Titanic fever” takes over Kabul—vendors swarm the riverbed and sell a plethora of goods relating to the film.
One night, a fabric merchant falls asleep holding a lighted cigarette, and many shops are burned to the ground, including Rasheed’s shoe shop. The family sells everything they own. With Rasheed home, the women are routinely beaten. Money soon runs short, and hunger becomes regular. The children get sickly thin. Rasheed does not know what else to do, so he takes Mariam to a local hotel to call her father, Jalil. Mariam regrets shunning her father for so long. Rasheed has dialed the mayor’s office, and the man who answers the phone does not know if Jalil still lives in his home in Herat. It turns out that Jalil died some years ago in 1987. Rasheed claims that Mariam is useless, just like her father.
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