A painful read by the author of The Kite Runner, Khaled Hosseini, this is the story of two wives of a brutal, murderous shoemaker in Kabul, Afghanistan.
The first wife, Mariam, is the illegitimate daughter of a prosperous businessman, affectionate but spineless when it comes to defying tradition and bringing her up as one of the family. Instead, he farms her out with her servant mother in a remote shepherd’s hut where, ironically, she spends a happy childhood, the happiest days of her life.
Then she is married as a teenager to a lecherous widower who hopes to spawn a son. When no offspring appear he becomes brutal, but Mariam soldiers on with her household work.
Then Rasheed finds another teenager, this time the cherished, beautiful daughter of a teacher whose parents are killed by a bomb which leaves Laila almost dead. Before long Racheed insists she marry him, which she quickly agrees to do because she is newly pregnant with her childhood sweetheart’s child.
At first Mariam is jealous of the new wife, but in time she and Laila bond in rebellion against Rasheed and one of them eventually finds freedom and a precarious happiness.
Conditions are incredibly appalling for these Arabian slave-women. To read of them is an awakening for those of us who enjoy the right to own property, vote and live independently.
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