Friday, August 3, 2007

A Thousand Splendid Suns by Khaled Hosseini


My Rating: 9/10

Like his previous novel, Kite Runner, this novel is also equally riveting, haunting and breathtaking. I like his books because of the way he writes about emotions. The language is so expressive that it feels as if I am actually going through it. Here’s the storyline:

It’s the story of two generations of characters brought jarringly together by the tragic sweep of war in Afghanistan. It is mainly the story of two women- Older Mariam and Young Laila and how their fate became entwined during war. Mariam was born as an illegitimate child who got married off to Rashid, an old eccentric wife-beating husband. The first part of the book tells her story very succinctly, describing her sufferings all her life. The second part of the book covers Laila’s story who was fortunately born beautiful, intelligent and also had a prosperous family. The third part of the book describes how the wars in Afghanistan and how it affected both their lives adversely, how it brought them together as Rashid’s two wives and how their unlikely friendship helped them get through the difficult times.

The book is full of sad, emotional scenes but it never feels unreal. It actually made me think about all those women who have suffered during Taliban rule in Afghanistan. The last part of the novel is heart-wrenching…and the ending of the story is …perfect. Here are few lines which I liked in the novel:

“That summer, Titanic fever gripped Kabul… "Everybody wants Jack, Laila said to Mariam. “ That’s what it is. Everybody wants Jack to rescue them from disaster. But there is no Jack. Jack is not coming back. Jack is dead….”

“…One could not count the moon that shimmers on her roof,
or the thousand splendid suns that hide behind her walls.”

“ I am sorry,” Laila says, marveling at how every Afghan story is marked by death and loss and unimaginable grief.”
To buy the book, click here.

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