A Thousand Splendid Suns
Khaled Hosseini
number of voters: 10
percentage of voters who finished the book: 100
highest rating: 10
lowest rating: 5.5
average rating: 8.25 (third highest rating of any book)
degree of difficulty in reading and rating this book without comparing it to The Kite Runner: high
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Even as I type this, history is unfolding in Afghanistan. It’s hard to relate to a nation in turmoil when your own is at peace, a culture of oppression when your own is so free. It’s hard to relate to a society so radically different from the one in which you daily live. Headlines are impersonal. News tedious. But a story tells you how it really is.
A Thousand Splendid Suns is a story, a modern history lesson, and an excellent book. By focusing on the fictional lives of two women, Khaled Hosseini is able to tell the story of an entire nation.
Miriam and Laila are two vastly different woman who, due to family circumstances and war, are forced to form an unlikely relationship. The author presents the difficulty of their situation with an even-tempered voice, without resorting to sensationalism or sentimentality. The characters are realistic, tragic but not melodramatic. The writing is beautiful. The story is sometimes difficult to read, but even more difficult to put down.
A Thousand Splendid Suns is a splendid story. But it is also more than a story. It is a magnifying glass on an Afghani culture that to most of us is a great mystery.
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