A Thousand Splendid Suns

A Thousand Splendid Suns
by Khaled Hosseini

A Thousand Splendid Suns
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Book Summary Information

Author: Khaled Hosseini
Edition: Paperback
Audio: English (Unknown); English (Original Language); English (Published)
Published: 2008-11-25
ISBN: 159448385X
Number of pages: 432
Publisher: Riverhead Trade
Product features:
  • ISBN13: 9781594483851
  • Condition: New
  • Notes: BRAND NEW FROM PUBLISHER! 100% Satisfaction Guarantee. Tracking provided on most orders. Buy with Confidence! Millions of books sold!

Book Reviews of A Thousand Splendid Suns

Book Review: A thematic Journey through Historic Afghanistan
Summary: 5 Stars



A Thousand Splendid Suns By Khaled Hosseini
'' A thematic journey through Historic Afghanistan''- critics Weekly

A. Author's main thesis / Argument & Plot summary.

The author Khaled Hosseini is trying to convey the struggle of two Afghani women : Mariam and Laila, whose lives have both been stricken by misfortune during a time of political turmoil in the middle east spanning over thirty years from nineteen seventy four to about two thousand and five .

The story starts out with a young girl Mariam jo. Who has been born to a mother of Hazara decent . For those of us who do not have even the slightest clue what a Hazara is it's someone of the lower social class. Now Mariam's father Baba is a rich man who doesn't show any true love for his hazara daughter in fear of a poor reputation. The story Starts out around Mariam's fifteenth birthday (1974), now at the same time in reality roughly 1973 Mohammed Daud seizes power in a coup and declares a republic , he tries to play off the USSR ( former soviet union ) against the western powers. This is accurately depicted in the book as Britain and the Soviet Union are scrambling for the control of Afghanistan. Soon after Mariam's fifteenth birthday on a regular visitation day her father does not show up and so Mariam goes off curiously to find him at his estate in the bustling city of Herat.
In Herat she is turned away by her fathers ''family'', when his driver tells Mariam he is not home she stubbornly refuses and sleeps on the gates of his estate. The next day the driver forces her home but on the way home they find Mariam's mother Nana hanging by the end of a tree, Mariam had taken for granted her mothers warning '' if you go visit him it'll kill me.'' Mariam is shortly after forced to marry a crude man named Rasheed and leaves for the city of Kabul. As a wife she is nothing but numerous failures. Throughout the twenty-plus year span of her marriage she is brutally abused. Than part two begins of the book with a perspective change to a local neighbors daughter Laila aka ''revolutionary girl.''

Laila is a girl who has been orphaned by a stray rocket that hit her home in Kabul, killing her parents . She has a best friend Tariq at the moment whom she is pregnant with his baby . Laila marries Rasheed in order to save her baby , she thought of going after Tariq and had a nightmare of her blue baby in pakistan being lowered into the ground . Laila Soon to find out that she is bound for the same disastrous marriage as Mariam. Laila has the baby girl named Aziza but Rasheed becomes more irritable of this fact and begins abusing Laila as he does to Mariam until she delivers him a son . This man Rasheed had a son in his past marriage who had drowned decades before .

From there on the marriage spirals out of control , until the point where Mariam kills Rasheed,when Laila says Mariam come with us to Pakistan Mariam will not hear of it . She fears she can no longer look Zalmai Rasheed's son in the eyes and know she took his father . The book sums up with an Americanized ''Disney'' ending of Laila eventually going back to Kabul and fulfilling her dreams . She lives comfortably with Tariq , Aziza (her daughter ) and Zalmai ( her son).

B. The thesis the author is trying to point out is specifically : women's rights during a time of political turmoil in Afghanistan. That is strongly agreeable to me and especially in the society WE the people live in , '' the land of the free.'' Women were suppressed during the reign of the Taliban, they'd be beaten up and sent home for not wearing a burqa in public . They'd also be beaten and sent home if seen roaming the streets while not in the presence of a male family member. Discussing such matters are controversial especially to an islamic fundamentalist some of whom believe women do not even possess the custody of their children or the right to marry. Women didn't even have the right to run , Laila tried unsuccessfully.
The Following Evidence is from News.bbc.co.uk12/hi/1162108.3tm

C. 1996 - Taliban seize control of Kabul and introduce hard-line version of Islam, banning women from work , and introducing Islamic punishments which include stoning to death and amputations. Rabbani flees to join anti-Taliban northern alliance .

D. The main characters are Mariam and Laila who face supreme suppression of their rights , these characters according to factual evidence are an accurate representation of history because as a reader I know that Mariam and Lailas conflict is caused in part by the political turmoil discussed previously in letter C . In a Thousand Splendid Suns Laila was beaten and sent home by the Taliban for trying to visit her daughter at the orphanage , the reason for not being in the presence of a man in public . The Taliban denied women basic human rights declared in history by people like John Locke and the Universal Constitution of human rights . Some of these things are still happening today overseas according to Afghan's women's news troops overseas have only been able to push out the influence of the Taliban in cities , in the countryside areas are still affected and under the control of the Taliban. These women many of them still girls are vulnerable to the punishments and violence that Mariam and Laila faced.

E. Why did the author choose such an Americanized ending while the rest of the book was more detailed in the aspect of reality?

F Yes , I'd definitely recommend reading this book because it has a strong plot that's been intertwined with history in a region where on the outside world we do not all know much about. The story is also a perspective changer because I who live in Astoria , Queens have scene a lot of recent Afghan arrivals and always thought of it as random , Well why are they coming here now? It's because some of them had been denied basic rights in their own countries . It shows that in another society , even modern day women do not have the privileges they should , that's especially alarming seeing the country that we currently live in .

Summary of A Thousand Splendid Suns

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After 103 weeks on the New York Times bestseller list and with four million copies of The Kite Runner shipped, Khaled Hosseini returns with a beautiful, riveting, and haunting novel that confirms his place as one of the most important literary writers today.

Propelled by the same superb instinct for storytelling that made The Kite Runner a beloved classic, A Thousand Splendid Suns is at once an incredible chronicle of thirty years of Afghan history and a deeply moving story of family, friendship, faith, and the salvation to be found in love.

Born a generation apart and with very different ideas about love and family, Mariam and Laila are two women brought jarringly together by war, by loss and by fate. As they endure the ever escalating dangers around them-in their home as well as in the streets of Kabul-they come to form a bond that makes them both sisters and mother-daughter to each other, and that will ultimately alter the course not just of their own lives but of the next generation. With heart-wrenching power and suspense, Hosseini shows how a woman's love for her family can move her to shocking and heroic acts of self-sacrifice, and that in the end it is love, or even the memory of love, that is often the key to survival.

A stunning accomplishment, A Thousand Splendid Suns is a haunting, heartbreaking, compelling story of an unforgiving time, an unlikely friendship, and an indestructible love.

PICTURE A BOOK CHANGING LIVES. NOW MAKE IT HAPPEN. Starting June 15, 2010 through August 31, 2010, visit this campaign page and join the ?Hosseini? group--and find out how you can make a difference!

Watch a video about the campaign here:



Watch a video from Khaled Hosseini introducing his online book group discussion where readers can ask him questions through his website here.


It's difficult to imagine a harder first act to follow than The Kite Runner: a debut novel by an unknown writer about a country many readers knew little about that has gone on to have over four million copies in print worldwide. But when preview copies of Khaled Hosseini's second novel, A Thousand Splendid Suns, started circulating at Amazon.com, readers reacted with a unanimous enthusiasm that few of us could remember seeing before. As special as The Kite Runner was, those readers said, A Thousand Splendid Suns is more so, bringing Hosseini's compassionate storytelling and his sense of personal and national tragedy to a tale of two women that is weighted equally with despair and grave hope.

We wanted to spread the word on the book as widely, and as soon, as we could. See below for an exclusive excerpt from A Thousand Splendid Suns and early reviews of the book from some of our top customer reviewers.--The Editors


An Exclusive Excerpt from A Thousand Splendid Suns

We have arranged with the publisher to make an exclusive excerpt of A Thousand Splendid Suns available on Amazon.com. Click here to read a scene from the novel. It's not the opening scene, but rather one from a crucial moment later in the book when Mariam, one of the novel's two main characters, steps into a new role.


Early Buzz from Amazon.com Top Reviewers

We queried our top 100 customer reviewers as of March 6, 2007, and asked them to read A Thousand Splendid Suns and share their thoughts. We've included these early reviews below in the order they were received. For the sake of space, we've only included a brief excerpt of each reviewer's response, but each review is available for reading in its entirety by clicking the "Read the review" link.

Joanna Daneman: "His style is deceptively simple and clear, the characters drawn deftly and swiftly, his themes elemental and huge. This is a brilliant writer and I look forward to more of his work." Read Joanna Daneman's review

Seth J. Frantzman: "Khaled Hosseini has done it again with 'A Thousand Splendid Sons', presenting a new, dashing and dark tale of two generations of women trapped in a loveless marriage, bracketed by great events." Read Seth J. Frantzman's review

Donald Mitchell: "Khaled Hosseini has succeeded in capturing many important historical and contemporary themes in a way that will make your heart ache again and again. Why will your reaction be so strong? It?s because you?ll identify closely with the suffering of almost all the characters, a reaction that?s very rare to a modern novel." Read Donald Mitchell's review

Lawrance M. Bernabo: "All things considered, following up on a successful first novel is probably harder than coming up with the original effort and Hosseini could have rested on his laurels in the manner of Harper Lee, but as "A Thousand Splendid Suns" amply proves, this native of Kabul has more stories to tell about the land of Afghanistan." Read Lawrance M. Bernabo's review

Amanda Richards: "There are parts of this book that will have grown men surreptitiously blotting the tears that are on the verge of overflowing their ducts, and by the time you get to the middle, you won?t be able to put it down. Hosseini's simple but richly descriptive prose makes for an engrossing read, and in my opinion, "A Thousand Splendid Suns" is among the best I have ever read. This is definitely not one to be missed." Read Amanda Richards's review

N. Durham: "All that being said, "A Thousand Splendid Suns" is a bit more enjoyable than Hosseini?s previous "The Kite Runner", and once again he manages to give we readers another glimpse of a world that we know little about but frequently condemn and discard. However, if you were one of the many that for some reason absolutely loved "The Kite Runner", chances are that you'll love this as well." Read N. Durham's review

John Kwok: "Khaled Hosseini's "A Thousand Splendid Suns" is a genuine instant literary classic, and one destined to be remembered as one of 2007's best novels. It should be compared favorably to such legendary Russian novels like "War and Peace" and "Doctor Zhivago"." Read John Kwok's review

Thomas Duff: "Normally I'm more of an action-adventure type reader when it comes to novels and recreational reading. But I was given the chance to read A Thousand Splendid Suns by Khaled Hosseini (author of The Kite Runner), so I decided to try something out of my normal genre. I am *so* glad I did. This is a stunning and moving novel of life and love in Afghanistan over a 30 year period." Read Thomas Duff's review

Charles Ashbacher: "This book manages to simultaneously capture the history of Afghanistan over the last thirty years and how women are treated in conservative Islamic societies.... In many ways it is a sad book, your heart goes out to these two women in their hopeless struggle to have a decent life with a brutal man in an unforgiving, intolerant society." Read Charles Ashbacher's review

W. Boudville: "Hosseini presents a piognant view into the recent tortured decades of the Afghan experience. From the 1970s, under a king, to the Soviet takeover, to the years of resistance. And then the rise and fall of the Taliban. An American reader will recognise many of the main political events. But to many Americans, Afghanistan and its peoples and religion remain an opaque and troubling mystery." Read W. Boudville's review

Mark Baker: "I tend to read plot heavy books, so this character study was a definite change of pace for me. I found the first half slow going at times, mainly because I knew where the story was going. Once I got into the second half, things really picked up. The ending was very bittersweet. I couldn't think of a better way to end it." Read Mark Baker's review

Grady Harp: "Hosseini takes us behind those walls for forty some years of Afghanistan's bloody history and while he does not spare us any of the descriptions of the terror that continues to besiege that country, he does offer us a story that speaks so tenderly about the fragile beauty of love and devotion and lasting impression people make on people." Read Grady Harp's review

Robert P. Beveridge: "When I was actively reading it, the pages kept turning, and more than once I found myself foregoing food or sleep temporarily to get in just one more chapter. When I had put it down, however, I felt no particular compulsion to pick it back up again. It's a good book, and a relatively well-written one, but it's not a great book. Enjoyable without leaving a lasting impression." Read Robert P. Beveridge's review

B. Marold: "While the events in Afghanistan and the wider world create a familiar framework for the stories of these two women, it is nothing more than a framework. The warp and weft of everyday life, and the interaction of the two women and their close relatives is the heartbeat of the story." Read B. Marold's review

Daniel Jolley: "Khaled Hosseini has written a majestic, sweeping, emotionally powerful story that provides the reader with a most telling window into Afghan society over the past thirty-odd years. It's also a moving story of friendship and sacrifice, giving Western readers a rare glimpse into the suffering and mistreatment of Afghan women that began long before the Taliban came to power." Read Daniel Jolley's review


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