AThousand Splendid Suns

A Thousand Splendid Suns

Khaled Hosseini

*****( 6/5)

Can I really give a book six stars. Yep- my website, my rules and this one in my opinion deserves six stars. I cannot say how much I loved this book. It’s like The Kite Runner, but from a female perspective. This is a great book. One of the best of 2007 ( which is turning out to be a really great year for books , or for me at least).

In his sophomore novel, Hosseini takes us back to his homeland Afghanistan, beginning briefly in 1959 and takes us to almost present day ( the fall of the Taliban). He tells the story of two women Mariam and Lalia- two women who are drawn together. Told in almost alternating chapters we follow Mariam and Lalia through their respective childhoods and as the meet and are bound together as adult women. Hosseini gives us so much reality in the situation of Afghanistan over the last half a century, from a monarch to Society Rule to the Mujahdeen to the Taliban and briefly on life after the Taliban. He pains such vivid a clear picture that I sometimes felt as if is was with Maraim and Lalia and I felt their bond, their emotions, and their life’s so strong- for a book.

I could probably gush about this book all day but I won’t. I’ll just say that this is one of the top ten books of 2007 and is a must read. I’d also like to say that this book paints the history of Afghanistan in an excellent way, more interesting than say reading a non-fiction book. Between this , The Kite Runner and The Bookseller of Kabul, I feel like I could hold an intelligent ( factual) conversation about Afghanistan or at least am able to understand the culture a little more ( more than my fellow American to say the least). This book completely stops all over that Kabul Beauty School Book if you really want a light into Afghani women.

You HAVE to go get this book.!!!!!