Khaled HosseiniReviews

It is hard for me to put into words how much I loved this book. It has been quite a long time since I've read such a poignant portrayal of female friendship, bound by mutual pain and resentment, these two women form a bond that is both beautiful and heartbreaking.

I read Kite Runner years ago, so its hard to remember the particulars, but I think this book is a great companion piece. Kite Runner focused on the lives and tragedies of men growing up in Afghanistan in the years of Soviet rule & the rise of the Taliban. A Thousand Splendid Suns focuses on the women.

I think this a book I will go back to and read again, but first I have to let it sink in a bit more. I was quite sad to finish it.

This is not one story. It is many different narratives combined to fit a very inter-related story. Early in the book, some parts have very poor transitions as it becomes difficult to figure our the context of what the author is trying to say. The difficulty lies in jumping from different time lines without a clear description, or a statement of a flashback. It does become easier as the book progresses and the gaps fill in. This book has many valuable insights into many different societies. As this book has many different stories, the stories tell how different societies and people from different ages interact.

A book that follow's two Afghanistan women that represent a different, a more dynamic, Afghanistan. It shows a more pluralistic Afghanistan than is usually being portrayed in the media. The time line starts of during early 1970s which are relatively calm, peaceful times. Then a turn to war takes place, and Afghanistan becomes akin to a warlord state. In fact, based on the descriptions of warlords, it does become a warlord state. It is like following a country from what appears to be a market economy with many similarities with the so called Western economy, to a communist nation, and the inevitable rapid decline to war economy. A degrading of a country by a few hundred years, in a short few decades. This author is very good at creating many beginnings and ends in one single book. Many different climaxes arise.

I have so many thoughts but the loudest one is mostly just around exploitation of certain stories in fiction.½

I hardly know what to say. This was so short but packed such a punch. It's truly tragic that refugees can't be seen for their humanity. I read this as an ebook but at some point I hope to get a physical copy in order to appreciate the illustrations better.

Excellent writing. I found the switches between times and speakers rather confusing though, hard to remember who was who & how they all related.

Hosseini's second novel of Afghanistan tells the story of two women: Mariam and Laila, beginning with their very different childhoods in disparate parts of the country, and weaving their stories together with expertise. It is a book that probes the unfair way that women are treated by society, by men, by women. Often shocking and raw, the book makes the statement that things need to change, that women need to band together against those who would have them downtrodden.

I liked the book very much, and its message even more. It was an excellent story that kept me reading for hours, and I look forward to Hosseini's next book, waiting for me on my bookshelves.

I thought this was quite a bit less engrossing than the Kite Runner. There is a lot going on in this book, but somehow very little actually happens. The constantly switching perspectives (sometimes multiple times in the same page), while not confusing, really underscored the lack of action (it took "moving the camera" to really intrigue the reader). Probably my biggest fault was that the characters were not that believable. I know this is a difficult claim to make - undoubtedly there are many people whose lives and personalities are well described by this book, but in the context of the novel some aspects of how Mariam, Jalil, Rasheed, etc. behaved struck me as oddly out of character - something that did not occur in the Kite Runner.

Overall, worse characterization and a weaker plot than his first novel. There are still things to be learned from this book, but I didn't feel compelled to finish it in the same way.

'A Thousand Splendid Suns' is an unforgettable portrait of a wounded country and a deeply moving story of family and friendship. It is a beautiful, heart-wrenching story of an unforgiving time, an unlikely bond an indestructible love.

It is a story of sin and redemption. There is no easy conclusion to the story and that is what makes it a great book. Also, I love books that spark an interest in a topic- history, current events, culture. This book did! The audio book was read by the author. (Excellent!)

Amir, a Pushtun, and his childhood best friend, Hassan, a Hazara, are inseparable, at least outside the public eye. The two friends live on the same piece of property owned by Amir's father, "Baba," in Kabul Afghanistan. It's the 1970's and Hassan's father, Ali, works as a houseman for Baba.

As Amir and Hassan grow, Amir fights for attention from Baba who showers both boys with attention. Born of Amir's jealousy, hidden resentment, and cowardness to stand up for what's right spring and threaten to take over Amir. And when egregious atrocities are inflicted on Hassan by fellow Pushtuns while outside their property, Amir hides, turning a blind eye, rather than taking action. This cowardly behavior will haunt and define Amir for the rest of his life.

When the Russians invade Afghanistan and the Taliban takes over, changing the landscape of the country forever, Amir and Baba flee to America leaving everything and everyone else behind. Decades later, a call comes from Pakistan, urgently calling Amir home, to rectify his wrongs, and make amends.

In this powerful story of fiction (except for the truth of the author fleeing with his Baba from Kabul to the U.S.), Khaled Hosseini brings to light the damage of entitlement and horrors of segregation and discrimination in a way that makes the reader have a much better understanding of how the Afghanistan we know today came to be.

The Kite Runner is filled with beautiful descriptions of a land long ago peaceful that is now demonized (and rightly so by all accounts), and how stealing, as told by Baba, is the worst of all sins: "When you kill a man, you steal a life. You steal his wife's right to a husband and rob his children of a father. When you tell a lie, you steal someone's right to the truth. When you cheat, you steal the right to fairness."

My two cents on the banning of this book (for sexually explicit content, language, and age appropriateness - marketed for not under 18 and has been apparently read by and/or required of high schoolers) is SO worth the read. The sexually explicit content is more implied than overt and pivotal to the story to show the low depths man will go to dominate and humiliate. Language - meh, unfounded. Age appropriateness should be read by people mature enough to handle the truth about war. I would allow my high school-age children to read The Kite Runner if I read it with them and was available for their questions. Many worthwhile teaching moments in this one.

Having come to this book as an audio book after reading A Thousand Splendid Suns, I felt it a trifle contrived but nevertheless a compelling story. There were times when it was so harrowing, I almost couldn’t continue.

A captivating book. From the outset, like Scheherazade, Khaled Hosseini neatly punctuates each step of this harrowing story with an enticement to read on. Only sleep, made me close this book. My heart is wrenched not just for what these women (and children and men) had lived through, but for what is to come, for what unfolds after 2007, when the book was written.

Khaled Hosseini is not just a fine writer

Everyone – the guards, the inmates, the children, Mariam – burrowed their faces in the hook of their elbows, but the dust would not be denied. It made homes of ear canals and nostrils, of eyelashes and skin folds, of the space between molars. Only at dusk did the winds die down. And then if a night breeze blew, it did so timidly, as if to atone for the excesses of its daytime sibling. P.326.

but a skilful storyteller. Curiously, having just finished George Orwell’s 1984, I can’t help but contrast the similar deaths of Winston and Mariam. Both accepting the inevitable totalitarian bullets but Winston perversely accepting oppression and Mariam finding and giving Laila some freedom from oppression. There are many other parallels to think on.

She had passed these years in a distant corner of her mind. A dry barren field, out beyond wish and lament, beyond dream and disillusionment. There, the future did not matter. And the past held only this wisdom: that love was a damaging mistake, and its accomplice, hope, a treacherous illusion. And whenever those twin poisonous flowers began to sprout in the parched land of that field, Mariam uprooted them. She uprooted them and ditched them before they took hold. p. 229.

Gjuetari i Balonave" ishte një befasi. Bota afgane na është dukur gjithmonë mes luftës, terrorizmit dhe interesave të shteteve mëdha. Ndërsa autori Khaled Hosseini tregoi se aty ndjenjat nuk kishin vdekur. Njerëzit ëndërronin edhe aty mes vuajtjes ulëritese. Ndjenjat ishin të njëllojta në Afganistan si në çdo cep të botës që qytetëruar. E në këtë linjë është dhe libri i dytë "Një mijë diej vezullues".

Një libër që për nga vlerat dhe idetë që përcjell nuk bie aspak nën nivelin e paraardhësit të tij. Veç kësaj, përkthimi me mjeshtëri i Ledia Agollit e përcjell mjaft mirë mesazhin e autorit. Gazeta "Los Angeles Times" ka dhënë vlerësimin më maksimal për librin. "Ky libër i shkëlqyer është vazhdim i suksesit të romanit "Gjuetari i balonave", thuhet në komentin e gazetës prestigjioze.

I learned about Afghanistan history but this was very difficult for me to read because of the depictions of violent crime and sexual violence that are still ongoing. Overall the writing was good.

Wonderful book, but it's very sad and disturbing. I wouldn't let anyone under 18 read it.

(audio) Excellent book that parallels the lives of two women in Afghanistan and their lives come together.

A great book about the relationship of two boys from Afghanistan.

(2003) (audio)Very good tale of 2 Afghan boys and how their disparate backgrounds causes pain and redemption thru the tumultuous times in Afghanistan.Hosseini's stunning debut novel starts as an eloquent Afghan version of the American immigrant experience in the late 20th century, but betrayal and redemption come to the forefront when the narrator, a writer, returns to his ravaged homeland to rescue the son of his childhood friend after the boy's parents are shot during the Taliban takeover in the mid '90s. Amir, the son of a well-to-do Kabul merchant, is the first-person narrator, who marries, moves to California and becomes a successful novelist. But he remains haunted by a childhood incident in which he betrayed the trust of his best friend, a Hazara (Shia) boy named Hassan, who receives a brutal beating from some local bullies. After establishing himself in America, Amir learns that the Taliban have murdered Hassan and his wife, raising questions about the fate of his son, Sohrab. Spurred on by childhood guilt, Amir makes the difficult journey to Kabul, only to learn the boy has been enslaved by a former childhood bully who has become a prominent Taliban official. The price Amir must pay to recover the boy is just one of several brilliant, startling plot twists that make this book memorable both as a political chronicle and a deeply personal tale about how childhood choices affect our adult lives. The character studies alone would make this a noteworthy debut, from the portrait of the sensitive, insecure Amir to the multilayered development of his father, Baba, whose sacrifices and scandalous behavior are fully revealed only when Amir returns to Afghanistan and learns the true nature of his relationship to Hassan. Add an incisive, perceptive examination of recent Afghan history and its ramifications in both America and the Middle East, and the result is a complete work of literature that succeeds in exploring the culture of a previously obscure nation that has become a pivot point in the global politics of the new millennium.

Not a good book at all. Suffers from the same fate as most contemporary or semi-autobiographical fiction books: The story has no direction. Instead, the reader is simply taken through the life of the main character, focusing on his relationship with his father and a friend. Of course, the writing is good, the events are sad, and I did learn more about Afghani / Islamic culture, but there really is no point.
A bad recommendation...

A emocionante história de duas mulheres afegãs separadas pelas diferenças culturais e unidas pela busca desesperada pela sobrevivência

Com um enredo envolvente e que discute questões políticas e sociais importantes para atualidade, A cidade do sol emociona do começo ao fim.

A obra de Khaled Hosseini narra as histórias de Mariam e Laila, duas mulheres com idades, trajetórias e origens diferentes que acabam unidas pelas tragédias da guerra do Afeganistão e as restrições impostas pelo Talibã.

Mariam é fruto do relacionamento proibido entre um rico comerciante e uma de suas empregadas. Rejeitada pelo pai, perde a mãe ainda na adolescência e é obrigada a se casar com um desconhecido trinta anos mais velho que ela.

Já Laila, filha de um intelectual, cresceu sendo incentivada a estudar, cursar uma universidade e ter uma carreira. Porém, quando seus irmãos são enviados para lutar contra os soviéticos e sua mãe se afunda em profunda tristeza, a garota passa a enfrentar obstáculos e perceber que nem sempre seus desejos podem se tornar realidade.

Esta edição de A cidade do sol conta com prefácio inédito e exclusivo de Hosseini, que, com esta obra, retrata a transformação da vida das mulheres afegãs que lutam todos os dias pela garantia de seus direitos mais básicos e por pequenos momentos de felicidade.

I love this book most because it is by an author with two best-selling books who did not just repeat his previous successful formulas but branched out for a different style of story and did so successfully. To me that shows growth and integrity as a writer, and I'm happy to appreciate all three novels for their own merits and not because I've like the author in the past.

This novel is more similar to a collection of short stories that have connected characters, but it is a novel because there is a specific thread that weaves the stories together. Each section is different from the others by POV, time, location, even style. Like short stories, the author has limited space with which to portray characters and actions, but each segment of this novel is as intriguing as the next. Each "main character" has depth and breadth and is likable in his/her own right. The scenes and time periods are also depicted with enough balance between detail and relevance.
Selfishly, I like this novel in contrast to [b:Kite Runner|77203|The Kite Runner|Khaled Hosseini|http://d.gr-assets.com/books/1309288316s/77203.jpg|3295919] and [b:Thousand Splendid Suns|128029|A Thousand Splendid Suns|Khaled Hosseini|http://d.gr-assets.com/books/1345958969s/128029.jpg|3271379] because the subject is not quite as gut-wrenchingly tragic or difficult.

Certainly worth the read.

So glad I was able to order an autographed copy.

I had really enjoyed The Kite Runner, so it is possible that my expectations were too high. Khaled Hosseini can tell a good story - the problem here is that there are way too many stories in this book, stories that never get a chance to mature into GOOD stories. You only get glimpses of potential. I really liked the story of Pari and Abdullah, cared about other characters, but it all drowned in subplots... When the book tried going to Greece, France, or California, I only saw their pale shadows. The only place that I could see, smell, and taste was Afghanistan. I wish the novel had stayed there.