Book Review | A Thousand Splendid Suns by Khaled Hosseini

Rating

5 stars – an unforgettable epic of destruction, love and hope

A Thousand Splendid Suns is about…

Life in Afghanistan spanning forty years; the destruction of war and of a fierce love that brings with it hope of a better life.

Since reading The Kite Runner earlier this year I’ve been eargerly anticipating the paperback release of A Thousand Splendid Suns. I was both spell bound and sickened by Hosseini’s first novel and wasn’t sure it could be surpassed. I’d heard mixed reviews of this second novel; all were positive but the male contingent I’d spoken to said they didn’t connect with this one on the same level as it is told from the female point of view.

I have to admit that for the first two parts of the book I was in agreement with them, though I once again found myself spell bound by Hosseini’s storytelling prowess I felt the stories of Mariam and Laila somehow lacked the raw and powerful emotions triggered by The Kite Runner. Then I hit part three where the two stories come together and suddenly I’m on a roller caster; caught up in the relationship that develops between these two characters and shocked and angered by the ‘real world’ that is happening around them. In 1996 the Taliban take over Kabul and women who were once treated as equals find themselves ordered to remain indoors, to not show their faces or risk a beating. Girls are forbidden from going to school and women can no longer work. At a time when I was enjoying the freedom of a university education, women in a county not too many miles away were being beaten in the street for laughing or speaking out of turn. When Laila is taken to a dirty ‘women’s’ hospital and subjected to a caesarean without anesthetic I felt sick to my stomach at the brutality.

Hosseini once again weaves a masterpiece; set against the monstrosities of war is the tale of a mother daughter relationship which shows that love and hope will out in the end.

Who would I recommend this book to?

You – if you haven’t read A Thousand Splendid Suns yet then buy yourself a copy as soon as you can.

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