Parvana

Parvana is the main character and heroine of this novel. She lived in the Taliban-controlled city of Kabul in Afghanistan. Eleven-year-old Parvana was unable to go to school because the Taliban had ordered that girls could not get an education. However, she did accompany her father, who lost his leg in a bombing, to a spot in the marketplace where he read and wrote letters, and sold household items to support his family. After the Taliban took her father and put him in jail, Parvana allowed herself to be disguised as a boy so she could work and earn money to support her family.

During the time that she filled her father’s spot reading and writing letters Parvana was surprised to see a member of the Taliban cry when she read to him a letter that had been written to his late wife. She also made two...