After reading Khaled Hosseini’s epic first novel, The Kite Runner, I was greatly looking forward to his second book, A Thousand Splendid Suns. The new novel does not disappoint and I actually enjoyed it even more than The Kite Runner.
The novel is again set in Afghanistan and provides the reader with a glimpse of the societal turmoil in this war torn country. I really enjoyed the book because it interweaves historical events and tries to depict Afghani life during the past 30 years. After reading Hosseini’s books, I definitely have a better understanding of Afghan political history. Like The Kite Runner, A Thousand Splendid Suns is a highly recommended novel.
From Publishers Weekly…
“Afghan-American novelist Hosseini follows up his bestselling The Kite Runner with another searing epic of Afghanistan in turmoil. The story covers three decades of anti-Soviet jihad, civil war and Taliban tyranny through the lives of two women. Mariam is the scorned illegitimate daughter of a wealthy businessman, forced at age 15 into marrying the 40-year-old Rasheed, who grows increasingly brutal as she fails to produce a child. Eighteen later, Rasheed takes another wife, 14-year-old Laila, a smart and spirited girl whose only other options, after her parents are killed by rocket fire, are prostitution or starvation. Against a backdrop of unending war, Mariam and Laila become allies in an asymmetrical battle with Rasheed, whose violent misogyny—”There was no cursing, no screaming, no pleading, no surprised yelps, only the systematic business of beating and being beaten”—is endorsed by custom and law. Hosseini gives a forceful but nuanced portrait of a patriarchal despotism where women are agonizingly dependent on fathers, husbands and especially sons, the bearing of male children being their sole path to social status. His tale is a powerful, harrowing depiction of Afghanistan, but also a lyrical evocation of the lives and enduring hopes of its resilient characters.”
And here is Khaled Hosseini discussing his new novel…
Posted by: Chuck
Posted in Books
