Part 1 Vocabulary
1. saunter(around / along/ in): to walk in a slow and relaxed way, often in no particular direction 闲逛，漫步
Sometimes Zalmai would saunter in and watched this game.
Eg: He came sauntering down the road with his hands in his pockets.
2. grip: to keep someone's attention completely 使入迷；吸引…的注意力
That summer, Titanic fever gripped Kabul.
Eg: I was gripped throughout the entire two hours of the film.
3. saddle (saddle sb with sth): to give someone a responsibility or problem that they do not want and that will cause them a lot of work or difficulty 使（某人）负担，使（某人）承担（重任或难题）
I'm saddled with a hag.
Eg: The company is saddled with debt.
4. scamper (about / off): When small children and animals scamper, they run with small quick steps.（儿童或小动物）嬉闹着快跑；惊奔
Barefoot kids scampered about around them.
Eg: The children scampered off into the garden.
5. wound up: anxious, worried, or excited
Upstairs, in Mariam's room, Zalmai was wound up.
Eg: I was too wound up to sleep.
Part 2 Summary
The drought in Kabul has lasted for three years, leaving people there on the verge of death from starvation. Laila and Mariam sell everything for food. Rasheed becomes more irritable, beating Laila and Mariam ore often than before. Accompanied by Rasheed, Mariam tries to call his father, Jalil, for help to alleviate hunger. But she is told that her father died in 1987, the same year when he came to visit Mariam in Kabul. Mariam refuses to see him and even shreds the letter Jalil left unopened. Now, Mariam feels regretful.
when famine casts a pall over their lives, Rasheed eventually decides to send Aziza to an orphanage. Laila and Marian have no choice but to agree to his arrangement. They tell Aziza that she goes to a special school where she can provided food. Having accompanied Laila and Mariam to the orphanage several times, Rasheed claims he is not able to go further and marches home because of his sore legs. Laila has to find ways to see Aziza, but half the time, she never makes it. Spotted by the Taliban, Laila was beaten cruelly and has to trudge home, bloodied, without so much as a glimpse of Aziza. When Laila makes it to the orphanage, she would spend many hours sitting with her daughter and Aziza tells her what she has learned there. Rasheed gets a job as a doorman for the Intercontinental, promising he would save up some money to get Aziza back home.
Unexpectedly, Laila finds a man at the front door of the house limping a few steps towards them. The man is the one who she has been missing for so many years, Tariq. Mariam seems to understand the lie Rasheed plotted nine years ago.
Part 3 随感
1. Mariam 走投无路的情况下打电话求助父亲，却告知父亲在1987年就去世。那一年，Jalil千里迢迢来喀布尔看望女儿，却只能从门帘里瞥一眼女儿。如同当年，他躲在窗户后面，拒绝Mariam看他一样。而Mariam，回想当时自己的做法，把父亲拒之门外，撕毁父亲留下的信，年轻时对父亲的怨恨如今都变成了后悔。先是理解了母亲Nana，而后后悔自己对父亲的后悔。作者笔下的Mariam，也越来越温暖，越来越懂得理解和宽恕。
2. 小说的魅力就在于一个又一个高潮，实在是没有想到，Tariq居然活着，而且离Laila这么近。21岁的Laila在Rasheed的眼里是一个hag（老太婆），遇见了朝思暮想的Tariq，却恍如隔世。看到这一幕，想到张爱玲《半生缘》里的顾曼桢和沈世均多年后见面的场景，只一句话，“我们再也回不到过去了”。
Laila stopped. A choking noise came up her throat. Her knees weakened. Laila suddenly wanted,needed,to grope for Mariam's arm, her shoulder, her wrist, something, anything, to lean on. But she didn't. She didn't dare. She didn't dare move a muscle. She didn't dare breathe, or blink even, for fear that he was nothing but a mirage shimmering in the distance, a brittle illusion that would vanish at the slightest provocation. Laila stood perfectly still and looked at Tariq until her chest screamed for air and her eyes burned to blink. And, somehow, miraculously, after she took a breath, closed and opened her eyes, he was still standing there. Tariq was still standing there. Laila allowed herself to take a step toward him. Then another. And another. And then she was running.
这段故人重见的描写看的真心疼。
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