Book Review

A Thousand Splendid Suns, written by Khaled Hosseini is a moving story about the lives of people living in Afghanistan during the Soviet invasion. The novel, which is divided into four parts, tells the heart wrenching story of two young girls, Mariam and Laila, and their journeys to finding happiness. Mariam, an ethnic Tajik was born in Heart in 1959. She is the illegitimate child of Jalil and Nana, and suffers shame throughout her childhood because of the circumstances of her birth. When Jalil refuses to deal with the consequences of his actions, Nana and Mariam are forced to live in a kolba in the outskirts of Herat in western Afghanistan. Not long after, Mariam is forced to marry a man twice her age, and move to an unfamiliar place in which so knows no one; consequently her life takes a turn for the worst. Mariam’s new husband, Rasheed is an ethnic Pashtun, a shoemaker, and the antagonist of the novel. Laila, an ethnic Tajik, born in 1978, is a beautiful and intelligent girl coming from a working class family when first introduced. Her life becomes tied to Mariam's when she marries Rasheed as his second wife after finding out that the love of her life Tariq is dead.
Khaled Hosseini author of A Thousnad Splendid Suns was born in Kabul, Afghanistan, in 1965. His father was tied to the Afghan Foreign Minister and his mother was a teacher in Kabul. After moving to Paris in 1976 Khaled’s family was ready to return to Kabul in 1980, but by then Afghanistan had already witnessed a bloody communist coup and the invasion of the Soviet army. His family eventually moved to California where Khaled proceeded to graduate from high school and attend Santa Clara University which he then graduated from in 1988. In 1993 Hosseini earned his medical degree. Hosseini began to write his first novel The Kite Runner which has since become a bestseller, published in more than 48 countries. He has since Written A Thousand Splendid Suns which has currently been published in 25 countries.
A Thousand Splendid Suns was written in such a style that it is able to capture a readers’ attention at first glance. Hosseini writes in straight-ahead, utilitarian prose and creates characters that have simplicity and straight forward emotions. The sympathy he creates for his characters comes less from their personalities than from the circumstances in which they find themselves in. He has a taste for melodramatic plot lines which consequently creates for an interesting and well written book. Hosseini’s style of writing is extremely effective in terms of capturing the reader’s attention and keeping you interested in the book.
A Thousnad Splendid Suns is a book worth reading. Not only are your eyes opened to the real story of the Afghanistan-Soviet war but you are able to better understand the different trials and tribulations that all the people of Afghanistan were forced to go through each and every day. Hosseini’s style of writing is very capturing and each characters story draws you closer in. The book itself was well written and has an attention-grabbing plot.