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Thousand Splendid Suns (Paperback)

by Khaled Hosseini (Author)
4.5 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (10 customer reviews)
List Price: CDN$ 20.00
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Product Description

Product Description

After more than two years on the bestseller lists and over four million copies in print, Khaled Hosseini returns with a beautiful, riveting, and haunting novel of enormous contemporary relevance.

A Thousand Splendid Suns is a breathtaking story set against the volatile events of Afghanistan's last thirty years--from the Soviet invasion to the reign of the Taliban to post-Taliban rebuilding--that puts the violence, fear, hope, and faith of this country in intimate, human terms. It is a tale of two generations of characters brought jarringly together by the tragic sweep of war, where personal lives--the struggle to survive, raise a family, find happiness--are inextricable from the history playing out around them.

Propelled by the same storytelling instinct that made The Kite Runner a beloved classic, A Thousand Splendid Suns is at once a remarkable chronicle of three decades of Afghan history and a deeply moving account of family and friendship. It is a striking, heart-wrenching novel of an unforgiving time, an unlikely friendship, and an indestructible love--a stunning accomplishment.



About the Author

Khaled Hosseini was born in Kabul, Afghanistan, and moved to the United States in 1980. His first novel, The Kite Runner, was an international bestseller, published in thirty-six countries. In 2006 he received a humanitarian award from the United Nations Refugee Agency and was named a U.S. goodwill envoy to that agency. He lives in northern California.

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Customer Reviews

10 Reviews
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 (7)
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Average Customer Review
4.5 out of 5 stars (10 customer reviews)
 
 
 
 
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11 of 11 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars The Sins of the Fathers Are Visited on Everyone, Dec 8 2008
A THOUSAND SPLENDID SUNS tells the wonderful, intensely moving story of how two modern Afghan women overcome the great challenges that have faced women in Afghanistan and rise above their victimization. Khaled Hosseini has succeeded in capturing many important historical and contemporary themes in a way that will make your heart ache again and again. Why will your reaction be so strong? It's because you'll identify closely with the suffering of almost all the characters, a reaction that's very rare to a modern novel.

In Part One, you meet Miriam at age five as she learns that she is a harami (an illegitimate child). Miriam's wealthy father, Jalil, had seduced a housekeeper, Miriam's mother, Nana, six years earlier and now provides for both of them in a remote shack where he can keep a low profile. Despite his concern about his reputation, Jalil adores the attention that Miriam devotes to him. All proceeds in an artificial and harsh way until one day Miriam decides to demand her father's attention. The consequences shape her world for the rest of her life.

In Part Two, the story moves to focus on Laila, who was born to Miriam's acquaintance Fariba at the end of Part One. Laila's rearing is almost totally the opposite of Miriam's. Laila is loved by both her parents with whom she lives and has many chances to develop her knowledge and skills. Laila lives in Kabul while Miriam grew up in the countryside outside of Herat. Laila is beautiful while Miriam is plainer. They also grow up in different times: Miriam is old enough to be Laila's mother. Miriam never had a male friend while growing up, while Laila is fascinated by the one-legged Tariq. All is going well for Laila until the war intrudes to send her life off into an unexpected direction.

In Part Three, the two women begin to share a destiny and develop a relationship. Their lives are more fundamentally changed by this relationship than by anything else that has happened to them. The magic of the story is most evident in Part Three.

In Part Four, we come into the present, when Afghanistan is once again opening itself to possibilities.

The time span of the book is from 1964 to the present. In the background, you are kept up-to-date on political events that shake the entire country. In some cases, those political events turn into revolutions and wars. In many cases, the violence intrudes into the lives of the book's characters. It's like reading War and Peace as adapted to modern Afghanistan.

The book also deals with issues of class, religion, sexual roles, child rearing, work, education, and community. These issues are highlighted in terms of the different regimes and attitudes of the controlling male characters. For Afghanistan was a world where the men called the shots, unless they chose not to do so. Although the issues that are raised and the way that they are raised are pretty predictable, it's a tribute to Mr. Hosseini that you won't see them coming. He moves his characters and action around in such a way that you won't see much foreshadowing of what's to come. Part of that skill comes in making each page so interesting and engaging that you are pulled away from thoughts like "I wonder where he's going next with this plot." I found myself deeply inside the story throughout. That's rare for me, especially in a story that focuses on female characters.

A THOUSAND SPLENDID SUNS was one of the very top novels of 2007.

I highly recommend this book and encourage you to discuss it with your friends. This novel would be a great choice for your book club.
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2 of 2 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars A Provocative Tale, Feb 14 2009
By Toni Osborne "The Way I See It" (Montreal, Canada) - See all my reviews
(TOP 100 REVIEWER)   
Hosseini gave us in his second novel a heartbreaking story of two girls who grew close, women bonding in the chaos of war. The rich and violent history of Afghanistan provides a backdrop that informs and saturates the story for a span of over 40 years. This is one unforgettable and provocative epic tale, one novel everyone should read.

Right from the start you are pulled into a world of cruelty and despair with Hosseini's rich narrative capturing the intimate details of the lives of his two heroines: Mariam and Laila. Both born into different families and during a period suffer under the same circumstances. Mariam, an illegitimate child born in 1959 is forced into marriage by her father at the age of 15 to an abusive and cruel man. Laila was born into a loving family before the Russian invasion, she was educated and had dreamed of travel. The emergence of the Taliban changed everything; a bomb killed Laila's family, Mariam's husband took her in and she soon became his favourite...this is their story....

All the praise this novel received is well deserved; the story is straightforward and beautifully written. Hosseini eloquently depicts the years of Afghanistan's unimaginable tragedy from 1964-2003.
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4 of 5 people found the following review helpful:
4.0 out of 5 stars Well written, authentic but demanding, Dec 8 2008
By Jon Freeman "jon2910" (Hampshire, UK) - See all my reviews
(TOP 1000 REVIEWER)    (REAL NAME)   
The previous reviewer here is not typical, and a viewing of the hardback version will show thirty-four reviewers with an average above four stars. While it is true that there is a lot of political background, I find it hard to imagine how this can have been seen as other than a story about a woman's experience, personal and difficult. To me it seemed very real and believable, and while not unputdownable, was engaging and far from difficult to finish
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 		 Most recent customer reviews

5.0 out of 5 stars Wonderful but so sad
My daughter had recommended this book to me and I really wasn't sure about reading it but I did, and I wept. Read more
Published 3 months ago by Freda Lowe

5.0 out of 5 stars A powerful story of female life in 20th century Afghanistan!
Long before Mariam was capable of even understanding the concept, she knew she was a "harami"- illegitimate and unwanted. Read more
Published 5 months ago by Paul Weiss

5.0 out of 5 stars Wonderful read!
Could not put it down. Any book that makes you see the world in a whole new way is worth its weight in gold.
Published 6 months ago by 3xCharmed

5.0 out of 5 stars Loved this book
I read this book because the author's other novel, the Kite Runner, was such an incredible book. And I'm happy to report that this book is just as entertaining. Read more
Published 8 months ago by NorthVan Dave

4.0 out of 5 stars Close to Home
At a time when the Canadian government must choose whether to maintain its forces in Afghanistan, presumably to free its people from terror and uncertainty and desperate poverty,... Read more
Published 8 months ago by Perry Haddock

5.0 out of 5 stars A very moving read.
I enjoyed this book more than I did the Kite Runner and I loved the Kite Runner. I think maybe because I am a woman I was able to sympathize even more with the characters in this... Read more
Published 9 months ago by Cori

2.0 out of 5 stars Didn't finish reading it.
I didn't finish reading this book. I expected it to be more of a personal story about a woman explaining what her life was like in Afghanistan during that time. Read more
Published 11 months ago by lostmymarbles

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