Matcha & Motifs Rating: 4.5/5 

In this story, which spans the 1960s to the early 2000s, two unlikely women find they’re all each other has in a war-torn Afghanistan. 

Someone told me this was a good book, so I read it. 

I don’t know why I went into it blind, mainly because I remember reading The Kite Runner at a way too young age and feeling traumatized afterwards. Now that I’m older and more exposed to life, I can say that this book left me heartbroken. I don’t know why I thought this would be a happy book, but I am torn. Pieces of me are ripped off my frame and fed to the wind, in that they carry my ache, my empathy, and my hope to those fighting in despair and pain.

Writing 

This book is pure literature. The more historical fiction I read, the more I love this genre. It captures the essence of pain, resilience, and finding life again.  

The writing in this novel is absolutely incredible. It’s indirect in a metaphorical sense and so beautifully poetic. I’ve copied some lines to show what I mean: 

“Boys, Laila came to see, treated friendship the way they treated the sun: its existence undisputed; its radiance best enjoyed, not beheld directly”

“But Laila knew that her future was no match for her brothers’ past. They had overshadowed her in life. They would obliterate her in death.” 

“And the past held only this wisdom: that love was a damaging mistake, and its accomplice, hope, a treacherous illusion. And whenever those twin poisonous flowers began to sprout in the parched land of that field, Mariam uprooted them.”

The writing, plot, and characters lend themselves to empathy. I feel what they feel and feel for them. For a book to stir this many emotions, it must be very well thought out and, most importantly, executed. 

I felt worried sick reading this book. I felt tense and uneasy watching Mariam and Laila’s story unfold. Especially during moments when they tried to escape but failed and had to return to Rasheed. I could feel the intensity and pain as if I were them! Why couldn’t we have anything good? They’ve endured so much already. And then, when I thought it couldn’t get any worse, Laila needed a c-section, and they didn’t have any pain medication… I wanted to scream! The simple lack of rights and health care frustrated me. She’s suffered so much already, and the Taliban made accessing healthcare even harder. They can’t even take away her physical pain during a surgery? Over and over, I ask myself why this is such a heartbreaking story. 

Mariam and Laila 

It’s incredible that in all this pain, love, peace, and meaning are found. Mariam, oh Mariam. She feels like a soft beating heart. Continuously, demurely beating. I feel like it’s easy to overlook her character because it didn’t feel like she had big dreams. She was complacent and obedient. However, her silent strength is something that my heart aches for. She grew up with a spiteful, bitter mother who only saw the bad in the world. And sometimes, though it was hard for Mariam, it was all she had. Then her idolization of her father only strengthened the fall when she was betrayed. When she realized her mother was right all along, there was no mother to return to anymore. Alone in the world, her father gives her away to a horrible, cruel, temperamental man. Mariam’s lack of children, when she felt so much love for her first child, hurt so much. Her dreams of a gentle life with her father were easily stripped away. And in all that hardship she had endured, her strength bled into Laila. 

Her thoughts right before she was executed are so revealing of what kind of person she was. The greatest gift was to love and be loved, to be able to give. The fact that she will never know the words her father left for her breaks my heart. I think this was the part in the book where I was sobbing. To have believed her father didn’t love her enough to have her be a part of his life was hard, but to never know that he regrets it and loves her dearly is cruel. 

In Mariam’s final moments, she felt peace and a sense of meaning because of her love and companionship with Laila. Her guardianship of Laila’s daughter filled my heart with sadness and happiness. Is it only through the most brutal hardships that we can feel gratitude for the simplest joy? 

Laila’s will to return to a place that brought her so much pain is commendable. Her desire to make a change in the world, a change she knew only she could do, was so strong in her. It’s the type of life and ending that would make Mariam proud.  

Final Thoughts 

The theme of motherhood is prominent in this novel. I initially predicted that Laila would begin to see Mariam as a mother figure and vice versa. Although this concept is reflected a bit, it’s so much more than that. Their connection feels multifaceted. It’s companionship, mentorship, friendship, an unbreakable bond forged by understanding and being there for one another.    

Read this book to break your heart into a thousand splendid pieces. The displacement and orphanage of war will always dislodge something in me. In the same breath, I cannot begin to describe my distaste for disgusting men. Cowardly men like Jalil, who gave his daughter away, in the protection of his face and reputation. Rasheed’s despicable emotional, physical, and mental abuse. It angers me. And in all this atrocity created by men, two women find love, comfort, and a home in one another. Increasingly so, it is women who will be there for other women. And in a way, this is rebelling against the patriarchy because they couldn’t take away this sisterhood.  
Some books feel like they are written with the intent of “how do I inspire someone to live, to be hopeful, to keep fighting”? But historical fiction shows you a journey of someone’s resilience. They may be made-up characters in our reality, so it’s easier to feel empathy. Overall, I love it, and you will find more historical fiction on this page. Tell me if you’ve read A Thousand Splendid Suns and what some of your favorite historical fictions are?