A Thousand Splendid Suns by Khaled Hosseini
“Like a compass needle that points north, a man’s accusing finger always finds a woman.”
Hosseini has a talent for a certain kind of story; he takes unbearable events and makes them readable. A Thousand Splendid Suns is a female counterpart to his earlier critically acclaimed novel, The Kite Runner; the story of two Afghan boys trying to navigate life through the war stricken landscape and ethnic rivalries of contemporary Afghanistan. Splendid Suns is the tale of two women and two cities - Herat and Kabul.
At the outset, we enter the unhappy world of Mariam, a young girl living on the outskirts of Herat. Following her mother’s death, her father marries her off (at the age of 15) to an acquaintance in Kabul, Rashid. Following a series of miscarriages, Mariam's marriage becomes a prison. We move from Mariam to her 9-year-old neighbour, Laila, growing up in a liberal family with a father who believes in female education – “A society has no chance of success if its women are uneducated” – a contrast that captures the complexities of Afghan society for the reader. However, through a series of family tragedies, Laila is left alone and becomes Rashid's second wife at the age of 15. As the two women suffer many horrors, Hosseini brings to life a beautiful female friendship in which their only hope is each other.
The horrors suffered by the characters in the story will make you cry but the book is not without hope. As Mariam and Laila embark on their journey you will be inspired by the heroism that comes with love. A Thousand Splendid Suns is an unforgettable portrait of a wounded country: “‘I'm sorry,’ Laila says, marvelling at how every Afghan story is marked by death and loss and unimaginable grief. And yet, she sees, people find a way to survive, to go on.”
Submitted by Mary-Ellen
