A Thousand Splendid Suns - Khaled Hosseini

Reviewer’s note-

I took as much time as I could to write this review because ‘A Thousand Splendid Suns’ isn’t just another book on my shelf but, it’s a croon, and I didn’t want to do any injustice to this book by writing it in a hurry. This book is breathtakingly beautiful. It is an epitome of a masterpiece of storytelling and agony. Khaled Hosseini is an artist, and his words unravel the magic and beauty and make us fall in love with the magic of the storytelling that the writer has to offer.

I still remember the night I completed this book; I couldn’t sleep. This book broke my heart into tiny pieces and took me on an emotional ride. I would strongly recommend everyone to read Hosseini because this book taught me the power of love and hope. This book is both heart-rending and beautiful.

Book Review/ Summary-

‘Afghan women, as a group, I think their suffering has been equaled by very few other groups in recent world history.’ – Khaled Hosseini.

This novel is centered on a mother-daughter relationship blooming between Mariam and Laila amidst the chaos caused by the political instability, Taliban, and ongoing patriarchy in Afghanistan.

Mariam, the only illegitimate child of her abandoned mother, is forced to marry Rasheed from Kabul, who is thirty years senior to her, by her father. While Mariam suffers through the patriarchal and abusive relationship with Rasheed, we meet Laila, a young, beautiful, and intelligent girl residing in Mariam’s neighborhood. Fate and war are what tie Mariam and Laila together. Due to uneventful twists of life, Laila has drifted away from her old life and her young love – Tariq and marries Rasheed. From here, we see a relationship bloom between Mariam and Laila. Mariam slowly rises above her hatred for Laila and starts to find a friend, a daughter she never had, in Laila. Slowly, we start to experience an unimaginable and beautiful, profound relationship between them.

“Like a compass needle that points north, a man’s accusing finger always finds a woman.” While beautifully describing the relationship between Mariam and Laila, Hosseini also portrays haunting and terrorizing situations arising in Afghanistan under the reigns of the Taliban. What we get is an insight into the horrific events suppressing the rights of women and the victimization of women in Afghanistan.

The writing style is simple yet elegant. Almost every page of this book has the power to move you, and when you read this book, you surrender yourself and give this book the power to hurt you. The portrayal of each character is so eloquently done, that you see each character come alive. The moment you think this is the worst that could happen in this book, Hosseini proves you wrong, every time. Every word from the description of the sufferings and brutality seeps in you and makes you experience the daunting realities of Mariam- Laila and all those suffering in Afghanistan, fictionally.

“One could not count the moons that shimmer on her roofs, Or the thousand splendid suns that hide behind her walls.”

‘A Thousand Splendid Suns’ is an explicit example of melancholy and hope. This is a book where despair meets hope, and fear meets heroism.

Happy Reading.