2003

2003 is the year of return and renewal in A Thousand Splendid Suns. After a year in Murree, Pakistan, Laila, Tariq, and the children come back to Kabul, a city slowly emerging from the devastation of war and Taliban rule. The drought that had ravaged the country since 1998 has ended; snow fell knee-deep the previous winter, and spring rains have washed away the makeshift bazaar known as Titanic City from the dry bed of the Kabul River. The streets are muddy, but no one complains, because the city needs to be green again. This year marks not only a physical return but the beginning of Laila's purposeful life as a teacher and caretaker, fulfilling the promise of her father's belief in education and honoring the sacrifice of Mariam.

Return to Kabul and a Changed City

Laila, Tariq, Aziza, and Zalmai rent a small two-bedroom house in Deh-Mazang, the same neighborhood where Laila grew up and where she endured her marriage to Rasheed. The house has a pomegranate tree and sweetbriar bushes in the yard. Tariq has patched the walls, built a slide and swing set for the children, and fenced an area for Zalmai's new goat. The city itself is transforming: people plant saplings, paint old houses, carry bricks for new ones, and dig gutters and wells. On windowsills, Kabulis place flowers in the empty shells of old Mujahideen rockets, calling them "rocket flowers." Tariq takes the family to the Gardens of Babur, which are being renovated, and for the first time in years, music—rubab, tabla, dootar, harmonium, tamboura, and old Ahmad Zahir songs—is heard at street corners. Yet the return is bittersweet: Laila wishes her parents, Mammy and Babi, were alive to see these changes, but Kabul's penance, like Jalil's letter, has arrived too late.

Laila's New Life as a Teacher

Laila becomes a teacher at the orphanage where Aziza was once sent. The orphanage has been renovated: the exterior and interior have been repainted, roof leaks repaired, walls patched, windows replaced, and the children's rooms carpeted. Laila bought beds, pillows, wool blankets, and had cast-iron stoves installed for the winter. Zaman, the director, and Tariq built a classroom by knocking down a wall between two adjacent rooms; the floor is still cracked and covered with tarpaulin, but Tariq has promised to lay new tiles and carpet. Above the classroom doorway, Zaman has painted four lines from a Hafez ghazal: "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." The children, many of whom call Laila "Mother," swarm her with affection. She teaches them Farsi, and the walls of the hallway are covered with posters of dinosaurs, cartoon characters, the Buddhas of Bamiyan, and the children's own artwork—drawings of tanks, AK-47s, refugee camp tents, and scenes of jihad.

The Ongoing Presence of Mariam

Mariam remains a constant presence in Laila's life. She visits Laila in dreams, and Laila feels her never more than a breath or two below consciousness. Though Laila does not know where the Taliban buried Mariam, she realizes that it does not matter: Mariam is in the repainted walls, the planted trees, the blankets that keep the children warm, the pillows, books, and pencils. She is in the children's laughter, in the verses Aziza recites, and in the prayers she mutters when bowing westward. Most of all, Mariam shines in Laila's own heart "with the bursting radiance of a thousand suns." Laila has moved on from resentment toward the warlords who have returned to Kabul, because she knows that is all she can do—that and hope.

A New Beginning and a New Life

In April 2003, Laila is pregnant again. The family plays a nightly naming game: Tariq likes Mohammad, Zalmai (who has recently watched Superman) wants Clark, Aziza campaigns for Aman, and Laila likes Omar. But the game involves only male names, because if the baby is a girl, Laila has already named her. One morning, as Laila stands at the classroom window, she feels a wave move through her—the baby kicking. She smiles and tells Aziza she is all right, very much so. The drought has ended, the river flows again, and Laila, now a teacher and soon-to-be mother once more, embodies the resilience and hope that define the novel's conclusion.