Chap­ter 8: In this chap­ter, the arrival of Mrs. Weera brings a renewed sense of ener­gy and pur­pose to the house­hold, as she announces her deci­sion to move in with Par­vana and her fam­i­ly. Her pres­ence invig­o­rates Moth­er, cre­at­ing a shift in the family’s dynam­ic and prompt­ing a new sense of orga­ni­za­tion. Togeth­er, Mrs. Weera and Moth­er make plans to start a mag­a­zine, with each fam­i­ly mem­ber being assigned spe­cif­ic tasks to con­tribute. Noo­ria is tasked with car­ing for the younger chil­dren, while Par­vana takes on the respon­si­bil­i­ty of work­ing out­side. Par­vana, eager to con­tribute, shows her moth­er the mon­ey she has earned, bring­ing a moment of joy to their home, despite Nooria’s sar­cas­tic com­ment about their father hav­ing earned more. This brief exchange empha­sizes the chal­lenges and strained rela­tion­ships with­in the fam­i­ly, yet also high­lights their efforts to adapt to a new way of life.

After lunch, Par­vana accom­pa­nies Mrs. Weera, who, despite wear­ing a burqa, walks with a dis­tinc­tive stride that allows Par­vana to keep up. As they walk, they dis­cuss the dan­gers posed by the Tal­iban and the fear they both live with every day. Mrs. Weera, how­ev­er, remains con­fi­dent in her abil­i­ty to han­dle what­ev­er comes her way, show­ing a qui­et resilience that Par­vana admires. Dur­ing their con­ver­sa­tion, Par­vana learns of Mrs. Weera’s trag­ic loss­es; many of her fam­i­ly mem­bers have been killed in the ongo­ing vio­lence. Despite these hard­ships, Mrs. Weera does not seek sym­pa­thy, and her strength in the face of such loss becomes a source of inspi­ra­tion for Par­vana. Mrs. Weera’s sto­ry serves as a reminder of the deep and per­va­sive toll that the war has tak­en on fam­i­lies, but also of the strength that is found in sur­vival and per­se­ver­ance.

Lat­er, Par­vana helps Mrs. Weera gath­er her belong­ings, and they load them into a karachi, a cart com­mon­ly used in the mar­kets. Among the few pos­ses­sions, Mrs. Weera proud­ly shows a medal she received for her achieve­ments in ath­let­ics, a sym­bol of her past suc­cess­es and a con­nec­tion to her for­mer life. This sim­ple yet pow­er­ful moment reveals that Mrs. Weera holds onto her past with pride, using it as a reminder of her strength and capa­bil­i­ties. After their busy day, Par­vana sug­gests tak­ing her younger sis­ter, Maryam, to fetch water, which requires some coax­ing from their moth­er, who is hes­i­tant to let them go out­side. Maryam, unused to being out­side the house, finds joy in even the small­est things, such as splash­ing water on her face, high­light­ing the inno­cence and won­der of child­hood amid such a harsh envi­ron­ment. This moment offers a brief respite from the con­stant strug­gle for sur­vival, show­ing that even in times of hard­ship, small joys can pro­vide moments of relief.

As the days pass, a new rou­tine begins to set­tle into their lives. Par­vana con­tin­ues her work at the mar­ket, earn­ing just enough to sus­tain her fam­i­ly while try­ing to keep Noo­ria engaged and involved in house­hold activ­i­ties. Par­vana also pro­pos­es tak­ing her moth­er and Noo­ria out­side to enjoy the sun­light, a sug­ges­tion that meets some resis­tance but is even­tu­al­ly accept­ed by Noo­ria. The sib­lings ven­ture out­side togeth­er, grate­ful for the oppor­tu­ni­ty to expe­ri­ence the fresh air and sun­light, which offers a sense of nor­mal­cy amidst the chal­lenges they face. These small moments of free­dom and con­nec­tion are essen­tial in main­tain­ing hope, as they pro­vide a tem­po­rary escape from the oppres­sion they live under. The grow­ing bond between Par­vana and Noo­ria, along­side their shared expe­ri­ences, reflects the impor­tance of fam­i­ly sup­port dur­ing such try­ing times.

Despite the ongo­ing dif­fi­cul­ties, Par­vana con­tin­ues to earn a mod­est income, and although the fam­i­ly does not open­ly mourn their father, the chil­dren show sub­tle signs of their sad­ness. One day, while work­ing in the mar­ket, Par­vana expe­ri­ences a brief moment of hope when she believes she sees her father. How­ev­er, as she approach­es, she real­izes it is only a stranger. This moment of con­fu­sion high­lights Parvana’s emo­tion­al vul­ner­a­bil­i­ty and her long­ing for the return of her father. Short­ly after, Par­vana finds a piece of cloth and a bracelet, seem­ing­ly con­nect­ed to a near­by win­dow, hint­ing at a poten­tial link to some­one impor­tant. This dis­cov­ery adds a lay­er of mys­tery to the nar­ra­tive, sug­gest­ing that there may be more to uncov­er in the unfold­ing sto­ry. In a lighter, humor­ous moment, Par­vana encoun­ters a tea boy who turns out to be a girl from her class, adding an unex­pect­ed twist to her dai­ly expe­ri­ences. This encounter intro­duces a touch of humor and sur­prise into the oth­er­wise heavy chap­ter, pro­vid­ing Par­vana with a new per­spec­tive on the world around her.

This chap­ter intri­cate­ly weaves togeth­er moments of resilience, hope, and mys­tery, offer­ing read­ers a glimpse into the emo­tion­al com­plex­i­ties of Parvana’s life. Through her inter­ac­tions with Mrs. Weera and Shauzia, and her evolv­ing role with­in her fam­i­ly, Par­vana nav­i­gates a chang­ing fam­i­ly dynam­ic while deal­ing with the emo­tion­al weight of her father’s absence. The chap­ter reflects the ongo­ing strug­gle for sur­vival amid the harsh real­i­ties of Kab­ul, but it also high­lights the impor­tance of fam­i­ly sup­port, small joys, and the ever-present hope for a bet­ter future.