A Thousand Splendid Suns: Part 2

by Khaled Hosseini
Mariam and Laila belong to different generations, but they develop a deep bond as their home city of Kabul, Afghanistan becomes more dangerous.

Here are links to our lists for the novel: Part 1, Part 2, Part 3, Part 4–Afterword

Here is a link to our lists for The Kite Runner by Khaled Hosseini.
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Full list of words from this list:

words only definitions & notes
  1. indomitable
    impossible to subdue
    Laila knew the routine: Mammy, ferocious, indomitable, pacing and ranting; Babi, sitting, looking sheepish and dazed, nodding obediently, waiting for the storm to pass.
  2. befuddle
    be confusing or perplexing to
    Ordinary tools befuddled Babi. On his watch, squeaky door hinges never got oiled. Ceilings went on leaking after he plugged them.
  3. ineptitude
    unskillfulness resulting from a lack of training
    Still, Laila could not shake the feeling that at one time, before Ahmad and Noor had gone to war against the Soviets—before Babi had let them go to war—Mammy too had thought Babi’s bookishness endearing, that, once upon a time, she too had found his forgetfulness and ineptitude charming.
  4. coy
    affectedly shy especially in a playful or provocative way
    “So what is today?” he said now, smiling coyly. “Day five? Or is it six?”
  5. reclusive
    withdrawn from society; seeking solitude
    Outside, as she was climbing on the carrier pack of Babi’s bicycle, Laila spotted a car parked up the street, across from the house where the shoemaker, Rasheed, lived with his reclusive wife.
  6. fleeting
    lasting for a markedly brief time
    As they passed the blue Benz, Laila caught a fleeting glimpse of the man in the backseat: thin, white­ haired, dressed in a dark brown suit, with a white handkerchief triangle in the breast pocket.
  7. fend
    withstand the force of something
    Today, Hasina was dispensing advice on how to fend off unat­tractive suitors.
  8. impish
    naughtily or annoyingly playful
    Unless, of course”—here she flashed an impish grin and nudged Laila with an elbow—“it’s your young, handsome, one-legged prince who comes knocking.
  9. oblivious
    lacking conscious awareness of
    “People who’ve been injured because of war,” Giti said earnestly, oblivious to Hasina’s toying.
  10. slovenly
    negligent of neatness especially in dress and person
    Slowly, in stages, Mammy materialized: first the slovenly hair, then the white, grimacing face, eyes pinched shut against the light, a hand groping for the headboard, the sheets sliding down as she pulled herself up, grunting.
  11. perfunctory
    hasty and without attention to detail; not thorough
    The obligatory questions, the perfunctory answers. Both pretending.
  12. flaccid
    drooping without elasticity
    Mammy’s hand floated up to her chest, tapped there. “In here. What’s in here.” Then it fell flaccid. “You just don’t know.”
  13. prosthesis
    a device that replaces a missing part of the body
    She’d asked him if his stump hurt, and he said it got sore at the end of the day, when it swelled and didn’t fit the prosthesis like it was supposed to, like a finger in a thimble.
  14. ruefully
    in a manner expressing pain or sorrow
    Of course, women’s freedom—here, he shook his head ruefully—is also one of the reasons people out there took up arms in the first place.
  15. pallid
    pale, as of a person's complexion
    She would never leave her mark on Mammy’s heart the way her brothers had, because Mammy’s heart was like a pallid beach where Laila’s footprints would forever wash away beneath the waves of sorrow that swelled and crashed, swelled and crashed.
  16. fresco
    a mural done with watercolors on wet plaster
    The monks, Babi said, painted beautiful frescoes along the walls and roofs of their caves.
  17. disavowal
    denial of any connection with or knowledge of
    Now that they were shaheed, packing up and run­ning was an even worse affront, a betrayal, a disavowal of the sac­rifice her sons had made.
  18. thoroughfare
    a public road from one place to another
    Spectators had gathered on both sides of the thoroughfare outside the Military Club near Wazir Akbar Khan.
  19. inconsolable
    sad beyond comforting
    They cried then in a three-way embrace. Giti was inconsolable.
  20. balk
    refuse to proceed or comply
    Feeling the noose tightening around Kabul, Najibullah tried to reach a settlement with the Mujahideen but the Mujahideen balked.
  21. vigil
    the rite of staying awake for devotional purposes
    She kept her vigils for the Mujahideen and waited for her parade. Waited for her sons’ enemies to fall.
  22. charismatic
    possessing an extraordinary ability to attract
    And, of course, there was Mammy’s hero, Rabbani’s ally, the brooding, charismatic Tajik commander Ahmad Shah Massoud, the Lion of Panjshir.
  23. ubiquitous
    being present everywhere at once
    Massoud’s handsome, thoughtful face, eyebrow cocked and trademark pakol tilted, would become ubiquitous in Kabul.
  24. fruition
    the attainment or fulfillment of a plan or objective
    For Mammy, this was the day she had longed for. This brought to fruition all those years of waiting.
  25. euphoria
    a feeling of great elation
    Mammy could be as indomitable in her fits of euphoria as in her attacks of rage.
  26. aloofness
    a disposition to be distant and unsympathetic in manner
    All those years of aloofness, of cooping her­self up and not caring where Laila went and whom she saw and what she thought...
  27. bantering
    cleverly amusing in tone
    They drank tea and smoked and talked in loud bantering voices about the Mujahideen’s plan.
  28. impetus
    a force that makes something happen
    Laila learned eventually that the impetus for this transformation was an eighteen-year-old boy whose attention Giti had caught.
  29. irreverence
    a mental attitude showing lack of due respect
    He seemed to take pleasure in not being welcome here, in infect­ing this female atmosphere with his half-grinning, masculine irreverence.
  30. repertoire
    a collection of works that an artist or company can perform
    This was a new entry in his repertoire of poses: back to the wall, arms crossed, cig­arette dangling from the corner of his mouth, his good leg casu­ally bent.
  31. disheveled
    in disarray; extremely disorderly
    Later that evening, Laila thought of how the melee had top­pled over, with men falling on top of one another, amid yelps and cries and shouts and flying punches, and, in the middle of it, a grimacing Tariq, his hair disheveled, his leg come undone, trying to crawl out.
  32. suffuse
    become overspread as with a fluid, a color, or light
    Laila’s dreams were suffused with fire and detached limbs and the moaning of the wounded.
  33. pulverize
    make into a powder by breaking up or cause to become dust
    The shelling knocked down power lines, pulverized entire blocks of shops and homes.
  34. unfathomable
    impossible to come to understand
    She couldn’t get around the unfathomable reality that Giti wasn’t alive anymore.
  35. rancor
    a feeling of deep and bitter anger and ill-will
    But Laila was thinking of Mammy, as obstinate and uncompromising as the Mujahideen, the air around her choked with rancor and despair, and she was thinking of Babi, who had long surrendered, who made such a sad, pathetic opponent to Mammy.
  36. obligation
    the social force that binds you to a course of action
    He knew she could not wipe away the obliga­tions of her life any more than he could his, but it went on, his pleadings and her rebuttals, his proposals and her apologies, his tears and hers.
  37. unremitting
    uninterrupted in time and indefinitely long continuing
    She would not miss him as she did now, when the ache of his absence was her unremitting companion—like the phantom pain of an amputee.
  38. imprudence
    a lack of caution in practical affairs
    The spontaneity of it. Their astonishing imprudence.
  39. garish
    tastelessly showy
    She lay in bed and watched the horizon light up in garish shades of orange and yellow.
  40. lethargic
    deficient in alertness or activity
    There was a reluctance in her movements, and her eyes had a lethargic, faraway look in them.
  41. brusquely
    in a blunt direct manner
    She tossed it brusquely on a pile of clothes.
  42. lurch
    move abruptly
    The ground lurched beneath her feet.
  43. shard
    a broken piece of a brittle artifact
    A big burning chunk of wood whipped by. So did a thousand shards of glass, and it seemed to Laila that she could see each individual one flying all around her, flipping slowly end over end, the sunlight catching in each.
  44. gibberish
    unintelligible talking
    Sometimes she spoke gibberish, cried out, called out names Mariam did not recognize.
  45. impunity
    exemption from punishment or loss
    The youngest was also the quietest, the one who seemed reluctant to wholeheartedly embrace his friends’ air of impunity.
Created on Wed Oct 19 19:55:04 EDT 2016 (updated Mon Jul 30 16:49:39 EDT 2018)

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