Review: A Thousand Splendid Suns by Khaled Hosseini
Meets one of the Armchair Traveler Challenge books: (#2) Afghanistan
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# Of book read so far this year: 21
Title: A Thousand Splendid Suns
Author: Khaled Hosseini
Year Published: 2007
Rating (1-10): 10+
Date Finished: 7/19/07
Genre: Literary Fiction
# Of pages: 384 (6 CD’s)
Number in Series: N/A
Where did the book come from: Wal-mart
Blurb: After 103 weeks on the New York Times bestseller list and with four million copies of The Kite Runner shipped, Khaled Hosseini returns with a beautiful, riveting, and haunting novel that confirms his place as one of the most important literary writers today.
Propelled by the same superb instinct for storytelling that made The Kite Runner a beloved classic, A Thousand Splendid Suns is at once an incredible chronicle of thirty years of Afghan history and a deeply moving story of family, friendship, faith, and the salvation to be found in love.
Born a generation apart and with very different ideas about love and family, Mariam and Laila are two women brought jarringly together by war, by loss and by fate. As they endure the ever escalating dangers around them-in their home as well as in the streets of Kabul-they come to form a bond that makes them both sisters and mother-daughter to each other, and that will ultimately alter the course not just of their own lives but of the next generation. With heart-wrenching power and suspense, Hosseini shows how a woman's love for her family can move her to shocking and heroic acts of self-sacrifice, and that in the end it is love, or even the memory of love, that is often the key to survival.
A stunning accomplishment, A Thousand Splendid Suns is a haunting, heartbreaking, compelling story of an unforgiving time, an unlikely friendship, and an indestructible love.
My Comments: While this was a very painful book to listen to/read, it was well worth it by the time the end came near. It is a very profoundly sad at times, and horrifying as well. It is indeed haunting, heartbreaking and compelling. Hosseini is able to take his reader right into the story, and it feels as though one is right there with the characters experiencing it alongside of them. Although this was set in Afghanistan with all the horrors of being a woman there, I believe there is a universality to some of the themes within the story: domestic violence, abuse, helplessness, etc. Hosseini’s books have opened up a new culture and experience for me and caused me to have a deep appreciation for Afghani women and their suffering. Even though this is a painful story, there is much beauty within its pages.