A Thousand Splendid Suns

A Thousand Splendid Suns, by Khaled Hosseini

Hosseini won world-wide fame and readership with his first, highly-praised and wonderfully-received book The Kite Runner. In his second book, A Thousand Splendid Suns, set in Afghanistan like his previous book, he again succeeds admirably by creating a beautifully-written book with terrifically-drawn characters. While The Kite Runner's main characters were male, A Thousand Splendid Suns centers on two women. Mariam, born out-of-wedlock to a wealthy father and poor mother, struggles growing up and is married at 15 to Rasheed, an older, malicious husband. Enduring an emotionally brutal life with him, Mariam eventually is relegated to the "first wife" role after Rasheed marries Laila. Initially at odds with each other, Mariam and Laila become strangely connected as they grow dependent on each other for their survival. Hosseini's story covers the years of upheaval in Afghanistan - from its civil war through the Taliban and into current times. While sad in its depiction of the lives which Afghani women experience, A Thousand Splendid Suns is so well written that it becomes a terrifically moving and memorable book.
-Roy