Chapters 21-26 Summary

In Chapter 21, the Soviet army withdraws from Afghanistan. Babi has taken Laila and Tariq to visit the two enormous Buddhas carved into the cliff at Bamiyan. Babi, Laila and Tariq climb to the top, and Babi is proud to be able to show Laila and Tariq this view. Babi tells Laila that he married Fariba because of her laugh, and he says that it's been very hard to lose two sons. He says that he thinks about leaving Afghanistan for Pakistan or America. He thinks about opening a restaurant in California, but he knows that Fariba will object that they need to stay in the country their sons died for.

Laila talks about having read Hemingway's "Old Man and the Sea", in which Santiago catches an enormous fish, but the sharks eat it before he can get it home. The chapter...