When I was in Afghanistan in 2007, I went from village to village where refugees had returned, and they were living out in the open under tents, sometimes completely exposed to the environment. And they were homeless, which meant they would lose children in the winter to the cold and in the summers in the extreme heat. It's extremely humiliating for them to be homeless, culturally it's very shameful.
Khaled HosseiniEqually important is the lack of cultivable land for farmers, a profound problem when you take into account that Afghanistan has always largely been an agricultural country, and that even before the wars destroyed lands and irrigation canals, only 5 per cent of the land was cultivable.
Khaled HosseiniPerhaps this is just punishment for those who have been heartless, to understand only when nothing can be undone.
Khaled HosseiniBut if you have a book that needs urgent reading,' she said, 'then Hakim is your man.
Khaled HosseiniHer eyes, walnut brown and shaded by fanned lashes, met mine. Held for a moment. Flew away.
Khaled HosseiniInside Laila too a battle was being waged : guilt on one side, partnered with shame, and, on the other, the conviction that what she and Tariq had done was not sinful; that it had been natural, good, beautiful, even inevitable, spurred by the knowledge that they might never see each other again.
Khaled Hosseini