Gul Daman
"She said she wouldn't live in her father's empty house either, in the village of Gul Daman, which sat on a steep hill two kilometers north of Herat." (Hosseini, 8) Gul Daman is a fictional place in this story, it is a village on a steep hill two kilometers north of Herat. This is the place where Mariam's mother, Nana, was born and raised. Later she went to Herat to work as a housekeeper for Jalil, Mariam's father. The kolba where Mariam lives is supposed to be halfway between Herat and Gul Daman. |
Kolba:
"In the clearing, Jalil and two of his sons, Farhad and Muhsin, built the small kolba where Mariam would live the first fifteen years of her life. They raised it with sun-dried bricks and plastered it with mud and handfuls of straw." (Hosseini 10) Mariam, an illegitimate child, was born and raised in a small kolba just outside of Herat. She lived with her Mother, Nana, and her father, Jalil, visited her every Thursday. Herat is an important setting in the book because this is where Mariam spent the first fifteen years of her life. She has only ever seen the kolba and whatever else is around it. |
Jalil House:
With shaky legs, Mariam approached the front door of the house. She put her hands on the walls. They were so tall, so foreboding, Jalil's walls. She had to crane her neck to see where the tops of cypress trees protruded over them from the other side. The treetops swayed in the breeze, and she imagined they were nodding their welcome to her. |