A Thousand Splendid Suns
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4.7 • 230 Ratings
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- £7.99
Publisher Description
Mariam is only fifteen when she is sent to Kabul to marry Rasheed. Nearly two decades later, a friendship grows between Mariam and a local teenager, Laila, as strong as the ties between mother and daughter. When the Taliban take over, life becomes a desperate struggle against starvation, brutality and fear. Yet love can move a person to act in unexpected ways, and lead them to overcome the most daunting obstacles with a startling heroism.
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.
Customer Reviews
A must read
A beautiful account of the hidden woman behind the burka.
Powerful, Resilient, Heartbreaking
A great book from start to finish!
A whirlpool of emotions
I read this during Ramadan of 2021. Whenever I look at this book in any book fair or shop my heart melts. Can't extol enough. It's like one song, that, whenever you hear, takes somewhere else, a day, a memory, a feeling. This is what this book is for me. It's not just the story but the way it is written. It feels like you are there and you can't do anything about the pain and agony the main characters are going through.