A Thousand Splendid Suns (2007)

This book provides a beautiful outlook into the various mentalities that prevails the Muslim cultures around the world, and how education can broaden one's horizons to change the beliefs of people around you.
This book is also able to show you the power of love, forgiveness and hope through different eyes like never before.
It is undoubtedly Hosseini's best work, at least IMHO. ( )

A fascinating and painful story depicting the privations and endurance of life in Kabul. The style is engaging and quickly drew me in. Having finished the book, I felt I had learned something new about the seemingly eternal personal conflicts in Afghanistan and the strategies that people use to carry on life as close to 'normal' as they can. ( )

This is a story about two women, a generation apart.

The first is Miriam, and illegitimate girl, who after the loss of her mother, is betrothed to Rasheed, a man 30 years older than her. He is cold and uncaring, and after she loses her unborn child the relationship as it is descends into a stalemate.

A few years later, after the Russians have invaded Afghanistan, Llalia's brothers are killed in the war, and after a moment with an very good friend, her parents are killed tragically too. She is offered as a second wife to Rahseed, and eagerly accepts, knowing that she is expecting already.

The women's relationship is very tense, Mariam seeing her as an usurper to the status quo she has enjoyed, and after the birth of her daughter it reaches another level of animosity. And as the Soviets withdraw from the country and the Taliban being their cruel grip on the country the women see their common enemy lies within.

This is a grim read at times, as Hosseini writes about the wider issues facing Afghanistan through the prism of the family, and society as a whole. There are no punched pulled in the book, and whilst not every family situation in the country would be as complex as this, every family will have been touched by some of these elements at some point.

It is really well written, it makes you engage and sympathise with the women and you feel for their hardships and pain in the tumultuous household. The issues that he covers, in particular with the wider cultural issues, are still being addressed today in this war torn country. ( )

4.5 stars ( )

Nice story of friendship and overcoming. ( )