A Thousand Splendid Suns- Book Review

A Thousand Splendid Suns, written by Khaled Hosseini is a novel about two women growing up in war-torn Afghanistan. Mariam and Laila come from two different worlds, but as their lives and a series of events progress, they find themselves together, remembering what it is like to feel love and have hope. Chronicling the lives of the two women over a thirty year span, the novel is able to give readers an insight on life of women growing up in a male-dominated society. Afghanistan’s tumultuous history serves as the backdrop of Hosseini’s novel. The plot of the story runs parallel to the country’s timeline within the last three decades. As conditions in Afghanistan go from bad to worse, so do the lives of the novel’s two protagonists. Although the novel is a work of fiction, Hosseini’s use of historical references make his story more realistic and allows the reader to have a better understanding of what life is truly like for characters Mariam and Laila.

Mariam was born out of wedlock, and the first part of the novel follows her as she grows into a woman. The second part of the novel shifts to the story of Laila, a 9-year-old girl who lives near Mariam. Although both girls' stories are interesting, it was not clear during my first reading how they connected or where the novel was going. In Part III, Mariam and Laila's stories converge. This is where the novel really takes off and becomes hard to put down. For those readers who read The Kite Runner and are afraid during the first part of the novel that A Thousand Splendid Suns will never pick up the momentum of Hosseini's debut work, fear not. It will all come together, and you will appreciate the time Hosseini spent developing the characters in the first hundred pages or so.

Overall, I highly recommend A Thousand Splendid Suns. Hosseini has written another page turner that moves quickly despite how difficult it is to internalize the sad and violent content that runs throughout the book. This is not light reading, but it is very good reading. Not only does Hosseini do an excellent job of creating an extremely interesting plot that engages readers from beginning to end, his use of imagery and descriptive language adds to the realism of the characters and their thoughts and feelings. Incorporating elements of friendship, love and war makes Hosseini’s novel relatable to many around the globe and a “must-read” (according to NY Times) for bookworms alike.