“I know you're still young but I want you to understand and learn this now. Marriage can wait, education cannot. You're a very very bright girl. Truly you are. You can be anything you want Laila. I know this about you. And I also know that when this war is over Afghanistan is going to need you as much as its men maybe even more. Because a society has no chance of success if its women are uneducated, Laila. No chance.”

“Yet as she closed her eyes, it was not regret any longer but a sensation of abundant peace that washed over her. She thought of her entry into this world, the harami child of a lowly villager, an unintended thing, a pitiable, regrettable accident. A weed. And yet she was leaving the world as a woman who had loved and been loved back. She was leaving it as a friend, a companion, a guardian. A mother.
A person of consequence at last. No. It was not so bad, Mariam thought, that she should die this way. Not so bad. This was a legitimate end to a life of illegitimate belongings.”


A few pages into this book and I knew that I would cry at some point - and I did. The friendship between these two women is absolutely beautiful and it shows that even in the worst of scenarios, love and friendship can lift us up, can show us that there’s still reasons to live and even if everything else fails us, we can cherish those moments with the ones we love forever. That time can wash away our memories, but the feelings that those moments gave us, they will stay with us.

This book is really uncomfortable and hard to read, but it’s so important, as, sadly, this still happens, not so far away from us.