A Thousand Splendid Suns

Khaled Hosseini

"Only the hardest of hearts could fail to be moved" Glamour

It’s a classic tragedy which portrays the war affected, devastated Afghanistan through the eyes of two ladies whose paths of life cross each other. It tells us about the political context of Afghanistan starting from the Soviet Union domination to the fall of the Taliban and the beginning of the Hamid Karzai reign. In this book, Khaled Hosseini creates magic with his writing, with his amazing power of providing intricate details…which probably is the reason why the seemingly repetitive war descriptions didn't strike as monotonous. But in all fairness the book was too long for its own good!

This is the second book by the writer. I have been especially excited to read this one after reading his first book, the masterpiece-the kite runner.
Both the books give us a sneak peek into the lives of the Afghans during the extended, horrific aggression period. I read about the distress of the people in newspapers…followed it on tv,  but nothing gave me such a comprehensible perspective of what it was actually like-being an Afghan, living, growing up, enduring death, loss, massacre and hopelessness-as this one single fiction did.  The poignancy behind the misfortunes of their lives is what characterizes this book. It got me shaken and sometimes restless with the despair, the grief.

The plot is based on the lives of two women.
 One, Mariam, born illegitimate, living alone with her mother in a secluded shack in Herat , plucked out of the society to veil the father’s disgrace.  The girl, inspite of all her inhibitions and bindings-dreams; looks up to her regular adoring visitor-her father. Till all her aspirations come crashing down, when the father declines to let her in his house, in his company. And later marries her off. Thus commences the beginning of her harsh fate filled with violence, intolerance and the lack of any warmth or sense of belonging.
Meanwhile little Laila loses her brothers in the name of jihad which lives her mother almost lifeless, disinterested in the daily affairs of life or even her. Laila grows up motivated by her father’s vision for Afghanistan and her father’s belief in her.
Fate brings these two women together. They look out for each other, loving selflessly. They face the cruelties of the war and the war prone, prejudiced society which becomes especially unbearable for the women.

Why should you read this book-because one rarely gets to read such a soul wrenching fiction these days, one rarely gets such an accurate and lucid picture of a crumbling society.

Is it as good as ‘the Kite Runner’? - In terms of the plot and story-line  not so much. But in terms of giving a true and moving picture of the afghan crisis, this is the book!