Product Description

Mariam is only fifteen when she is sent to Kabul to marry the troubled and bitter Rasheed, who is thirty years her senior. Nearly two decades later, in a climate of growing unrest, tragedy strikes fifteen-year-old Laila, who must leave her home and join Mariam's unhappy household. Laila and Mariam are to find consolation in each other, their friendship to grow as deep as the bond between sisters, as strong as the ties between mother and daughter. With the passing of time comes Taliban rule over Afghanistan, the streets of Kabul loud with the sound of gunfire and bombs, life a desperate struggle against starvation, brutality and fear, the women's endurance tested beyond their worst imaginings. Yet love can move a person to act in unexpected ways, lead them to overcome the most daunting obstacles with a startling heroism. In the end, it is love that triumphs over death and destruction. "A Thousand Splendid Suns" is an unforgettable portrait of a wounded country and a deeply moving story of family and friendship. It is a beautiful, heart-wrenching story of an unforgiving time, an unlikely bond and an indestructible love

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #455 in Books
• Published on: 2007-05-22
• Original language: English
• Binding: Paperback
• 384 pages

Review
'A beautifully crafted and disturbing story of two women victims of the wrath of men. As unforgettable as The Kite Runner, this novel places us in Afghanistan with an open heart' Isabel Allende 'I loved this book - I couldn't put it down and read it in one sitting. It is incredibly moving and a real insight into the madness and suffering of Afghanistan - in particular its women' Fiona Bruce 'Hosseini proves his credentials as a superstar storyteller. This follow up to The Kite Runner will have fans rampaging into bookshops desperate for their copy. Yet again he weaves a masterful story around the lives of two extraordinary and compelling characters brought together in adversity' Mariella Frostrup 'From further east comes, at long last, Hosseini's A Thousand Splendid Suns in which the universally adored author of The Kite Runner returns with a study of love and self-sacrifice in a modern Afghan family' Sunday Telegraph

The Times
`The novel offers extraordinarily harrowing insights into the lives of Afghan women over the past three decades .... If he cut his teeth by writing about his countrymen, it is the plight of Afghanistan's women that has brought him to realise his full powers as a novelist'

London Paper Book of the Week
`Hosseini has stuck with his winning formula: compelling, unflashy storytelling centred around two sympathetic protagonists struggling in difficult times ... nothing beats a good story'

Customer Reviews

Fantastic, poignant - get ready to get angry
This is a magnificent story of the plight of women in Afghanistan, both before, during and after the Taliban. It traces the story of Mariam and Laila, both from very different background, but both finding themselves living without freedom, with constant violence and with nothing but their love for one another and the dream of a better life to keep them going.

Books such as this are essential reading because so many of us are ignorant to the every day lives of people living in a war torn country such as Afghanistan. We hear about the victims of regimes, but when you look at stories in newsprint, or hear them on TV whilst you are eating a good dinner, or living your comfortable life, they can be distant. This book, despite it being fiction, allows you to see what it could be like to live in Afghanistan as a woman with very few choices. If you are like me, it will make you furiously angry that in today's modern world people are still treated this way, simply by virtue of the fact that they were born female.

Nevertheless, this book is full of hope. It is beautifully written and demonstrates how the will to survive can prevail, especially when boosted by love, no matter how unexpected. I think this a mature novel written with thought and understanding. I had to keep putting it down to bring my emotions back in check, but I couldn't actually stop until I'd finished.

a thousand slendid suns a truly splendid read
i loved this book, i read the kite runner first and thought it would struggle to be as good, it was different and in my opinion better, the plot has been covered here by other reviewers but i cried at the end, it showed just how futile life can be for women in afghanistan and how the choices are taken, how brutal life can be, i would recommend highly

Really brilliant
I hesitated to read Hosseini's work until I could no longer ignore recommendations. If The Kite Runner is excellent, then A Thousand Splendid Suns is brilliant. It's a moving story of two Afghan women, their personal tragedies and the tragedy of their country descending into enduring conflict. But hope and love endure as well. A must read.