Sparks Like Stars: A Novel

Aryana observes the other passengers and notices few Westerners. She is nervous to be returning to Afghanistan. She and Antonia both wear headscarves when they exit the plane. They take a taxi through town, and Aryana thinks Kabul is “a jungle of juxtapositions” (366), ancient and modern side by side. They arrive at the Hotel Intercontinental, which is luxurious and secure; the Taliban have been routed, but not eradicated. Antonia remembers her old apartment on Chicken Street.

Aryana checks messages and sees that Adam has called. They meet Clay for breakfast and meet their driver, Waleed. As they tour the town, Aryana sees buildings she once knew reduced to rubble. Aryana asks to see her old neighborhood, which Waleed says suffered much during the civil war. There is little left of her old home, and Aryana runs the sand through her fingers. They visit OMAR, the Organization for Mine Clearance and Afghan Rehabilitation. Aryana meets another female doctor, Dr. Nazari, who shows them around her maternity hospital. Later that night, as she runs on the treadmill, Aryana is thrown off.

The next morning, they take a cab to the American embassy, and Aryana thinks how at home Clay seems in Afghanistan. Aryana sees her name everywhere; Ariana was once the name of the country. They meet with a woman named Carla, an officer at the embassy. She says she will look into the commission but does not know where to start. Aryana feels her homeland has become cold.

Aryana remembers how, during a brutal period of their residency, Dayo took her to see a fortune teller. As the woman read her tarot cards, her predictions upset Aryana deeply, and she ran out of the shop.

Aryana stands before Arg and asks directions to the Ministry of the Interior. She walks past Chicken Street and looks in the shop that replaced the bakery beneath the apartment. At the Ministry, Aryana wonders how to proceed; she feels she will get nowhere whether she reveals who she is or not. She tells an official she is the daughter of Suleiman Zamani and has heard about the commission to locate bodies. He says he will send a car to her hotel the next day.

They dine at a restaurant inspired by the poet Rumi. Aryana flips through a volume of poetry, a line of which references sparks like stars. Clay takes a call from Selena, who Aryana thinks is his girlfriend. Antonia talks a bit about her time in Kabul. Clay says the US and the Russians were playing tug-of-war with Afghanistan, “and they shredded this country to pieces” (398). Antonia says the matter is more complex. Aryana goes for a walk and senses a man is following her. Back at the hotel, she goes onto the roof to look at the stars.

Woken at dawn by the call to prayer, Aryana puts her bedspread on the floor and prays, as she has not done since she was a child. As she does, “The desert in [her] rearranges once more. Sands shift back into place and [her] chest lightens” (405). She realizes that, in being afraid to talk of her family, she has robbed herself of them all over again. Antonia says she hopes one day Aryana will forgive herself for surviving. She deserves to be happy and loved.

In the car with the driver sent by the ministry, Aryana starts to become nervous, especially when Clay realizes he is taking them to Pol-e-charkhi prison. It is forbidding, topped with barbed wire, and Aryana wonders if they are to be imprisoned. They meet with three men who ask why they want to know about the commission. One suggests Aryana’s family might have been part of those who escaped Arg that night, were brought to prison, and then later taken to Europe by the shah of Iran. Aryana says her family did not escape; she witnessed their martyrdom. An official shows Aryana pictures of the bodies that were recovered, and she recognizes items that belonged to President Daoud and his family. She mentions her father’s pocket watch, her mother’s necklace with the name of God, and her brother with his baby teeth. The men show her the empty hole, and Aryana can see there is nothing there.

Aryana goes back to her hotel and sleeps, then checks messages. She learns that Shair has died. She runs on the treadmill and realizes she cannot torture herself about what she could have done differently. She decides she will give the ring to the museum and then go home. Clay says he will go with Aryana to the museum. He reveals that Selena is his publicist. Aryana thinks Clay should write about the recovered bodies, but he says the story is too close to her.

At the museum, they meet Nasrat, the curator. He tours them through the displays. The ones for Ai-Khanoum are empty; many of the pieces were stolen and sold to foreign museums. Aryana gives him the ring and feels secure that the treasure will be in good hands.

As she arranges to return to the US, Aryana thinks of Afghanistan as a land of paradoxes, the people “wizened and doe-eyed, hopeful and traumatized” (427). She invites Clay to visit the garden of Bagh-e-Babur with her and recalls how her family would picnic there. The gardens were constructed by the emperor Babur in the image of the gardens of Paradise, and Aryana thinks she does not care what heaven looks like as long as she gets to see her parents. She remembers what Shair said about where her parents were buried and suddenly realizes what it means. As she waits for Clay at the hotel, the man who was following her approaches.

The man calls her Sitara, and she recognizes Rostam, Neelab’s brother. Aryana tells him how she escaped that night. Rostam was not killed with his family but taken to the prison with some other family members who had been spared. After six months, the shah of Iran flew them to Switzerland. Rostam now lives in Germany but visits Afghanistan from time to time. He travels with them to the prison.

Aryana meets again with the officials at the prison and reveals that her family’s bodies were buried among the tall trees on the hill that look down on the gardens of Babur. She walks to the ring of trees and shows them where. Some of the guards begin to dig. As they labor, Aryana wonders what will change if she does see their bodies. The guards find something, and Aryana feels the spirits of her family visiting her before she looks into the ground.

Clay and Aryana sit on Antonia’s porch, where they have been her guests for dinner. Aryana wears her mother’s necklace and keeps her father’s pocket watch under a glass dome. She arranged a burial for her family before she left with proper headstones. In a way, she feels like she has her family back. She is keeping in touch with Rostam and his family in Germany and thinks about helping at Dr. Nazari’s hospital. There is more she wants to share with Clay.