A Thousand Splendid Suns by Khaled Hosseini

'A Thousand Splendid Suns' is a disturbing story, this time from Afghanistan. I have read ‘Kite Runner’ and anyways all the reviews have been pretty good for this book, so when I saw it resting on my friend’s book-shelf, I picked it up. As it is quite obvious, I have been reading quite a lot of books in this genre, and what connects them all together is the fact that they were all about stories of women who went through quite a lot of ordeal. Not very pleasant books to read, as many of my friends have pointed out and loudly wonder, why have I been reading so many of melancholic books. But then, I see it differently. These are stories, many of them real, most of them disturbing, but that happens to life. One needs to deal with it. These days I have grown to love non-fiction quite a lot.



‘A Thousand Splendid suns’ is basically a story about two women, from almost a generation apart, who are thrown together by fate as wives of the same man. Half the book is about the backgrounds of both the women. The first one, Mariam, is an illegitimate child of a wealthy man. She loves her father, until she is married off hastily to a much older man by him. She used to look forward to the time that she used to spend a kid and as a teenager, never believing her mother even a word that she would say against him. But when she sets out to meet him, he does not meet her. And in a quick succession of events her mother commits suicide, she has nowhere to go and nobody wants her, so she is married off to a widower. The man turns out to be idiosyncratic and temperamental. But she learns to deal with him. It does not help that she is not able to bore him a child.


Second woman is Laila, who in a strange turn of events finds herself in Mariam’s home. Her father was particular about Laila’s education, and her upbringing was pretty liberal. But in a freak explosion, her parents are killed, and she survives. She hears of the demise of her boyfriend, Tariq. Finding herself 6 weeks pregnant with Tariq’s child, and knowing fully well, what happened to women with illegitimate child and women in general without anybode to protect, in Taliban, she agrees to marry Rasheed, Mariam’s husband.


This is their story, Mariam’s and Laila’s. I would say, I liked ‘Kite-Runner’ more, but this is not bad either. I found the beginning part, marginally slow, with too many pages dedicated to their growing up and reaching the main story. After a while, you get a little restless about reaching the main part of the story but towards the end, it is quite fast-paced.


I would definitely recommend it, and I think I would give it 7.5 out of 10. Read another review here.

Review: The Kite Runner by Khaled Hosseini

‘The Kite Runner’ is a fabulous book and also a wonderful movie.

I read the book about 3 years back. I was member of this library from where you could borrow a couple of books, read and then return for some other books. When I read the back cover, I found it intriguing. So, I just picked it up.

It was a ‘difficult’ book to read – not in language or expression but in content, in the emotions that it evoked. It left me with a heavy heart. It was like Shashi Deshpande’s books. When you are done, you would feel as if you have lived the book. Just like in Deshpande’s books, the feelings are described so clearly that you end up living those yourself; and eventually you end up ‘living’ the book. So, when the book gets over, you feel empty for sometime.

The basic plot is that of two friends - Amir and Hassan but beyond the surface, this book addresses a lot of political, sociological and emotional issues. Amir’s dad is a rich guy and Hassan’s father works at Amir’s home. But there is deep friendship between the two. Hassan – from supposedly a low caste - is so devoted to Amir that he would do anything for his sake. The book is about how he puts himself at stake and faces deep humiliation, for Amir. 

Amir is not so brave. He carries the guilt of knowing what Hassan goes through and not doing anything about it. 

Both get separated due to political turmoil and family situations, but eventually Amir risks his life to save Hassan’s son and pays the dues of friendship, at the end.

Don’t want to be a spoiler, so no matter how much I want to write the story here, I would control myself.

The movie was beautiful. There is an effortless translation of book into the movie. I could not stop myself from crying for Hassan and feeling deep sense of injustice in knowing that he only did the right thing, yet he lost his life. 

The movie also reminded how an Afghan used to be reminiscent of “Kabulliwalah” – the big-hearted pathan; unlike today, where people look at an Afghan with suspicion. It is also sad to look at the deteriorated condition of life there, abject injustice in the name of religion. When the world is progressing toward growth and development, Talibans support regressive culture and clearly favour stone age! It is even difficult to imagine life for them. 

Watch the movie (and read the book) for its sensitivity and beautiful portrayal of human emotions and friendship. It is every bit worth it.