Khaled Hosseini has again written a beautiful novel that draws you in and takes you on an emotional rollercoaster. Having read his Kite Runner before, I was expecting the same sort of thing from him again, betrayal and forgiveness, and yet I was surprised in the best of ways, in fact it was better than The Kite Runner. In this novel the reader feels nothing but hope, hope that the two characters, Mariam and Laila, would finally get what they truly deserved… Happiness. This novel also tugs on heart strings, makes you fall in love with each and every character, while you experience the hurt, anger, pain, loss, and love that each character feels.
Not only does this story make you feel so much for the main characters, you also are experiencing the war on Afghanistan. With the novel starting in the 1960’s and it ending in 2003, Hosseini does not fail to keep up the history and events of the war, you watch as the characters live threw the beginning, and what seemed like the end, then they are thrown into more war, and they suffer with so many lives being lost. Not only that but you learn about the cultures of the Afghans, they’re love for God, daily routines, and the marriage traditions, you also watch as with the laws of women change throughout the years, and how defiant many of them were to those laws. I feel now that I know much more about the daily lives of the Afghans after reading this novel.
Hosseini’s novel starts out with us meeting Mariam and our hearts automatically go out to her as we read and learn about the life she shares with her Nana. You watch as her love for her father changes her life in one of the most dramatic ways ever. You then watch her one wish finally come true, in a way she wishes it hadn’t. The feelings Mariam feels changes the person she is, she goes through so much that you understand her more and more. She becomes a much stronger person.
Then we meet Laila, a young girl who is deprived of a Mammy for a decision her Babi makes. You are taken on the journey of a life so much different than Mariam’s, one with love and childhood innocence. Then one day her world is turned upside down, and her life is changed forever. Laila then meets Mariam and their lives change in ways that the reader could not predict. From then on the book was almost impossible to be put down to finish reading the next day, so much would happen in a short amount of time that you couldn’t stop even for a second. The book ends on a happy, heartwarming tone that makes the heart swell.
I would recommend this book to anyone in middle to high school, but I warn you that there are a few graphic parts in Hosseini’s writing describing certain scenes, but other than that I strongly encourage any reader to read A Thousand Splendid Suns, especially if you have read The Kite Runner. This is the kind of book that I could read ten more times and still love every moment of it. Every tear jerking, heart lifting, unpredictable, powerful, mesmerizing, heart breaking, and loving moment that Khaled Hosseini had filled his pages with. I don’t think there is any reason not to read this book.