Genre Fiction
![Khaled Hosseini - [object Object] author](https://res.cloudinary.com/readsomnia/image/upload/authors/a_B001HCX9N0.jpg)
A Thousand Splendid Suns
Propelled by the same superb instinct for storytelling that made The Kite Runner a beloved classic, the #1 New York Times bestseller 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.
"Just as good, if not better, than Khaled Hosseini's best-selling first book, The Kite Runner."-Newsweek
Khaled Hosseini returns with a beautiful, riveting, and haunting novel that confirms his place as one of the most important literary writers today.
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.
"Just as good, if not better, than Khaled Hosseini's best-selling first book, The Kite Runner."-Newsweek
Khaled Hosseini returns with a beautiful, riveting, and haunting novel that confirms his place as one of the most important literary writers today.
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.
Editorial Reviews
"A Thousand Splendid Suns is an ambitious work. Once again the setting is Afghanistan, but this time [Hosseini] has taken the last 33 years of that country's tumultuous history of war and oppression and told it on an intimate scale, through the lives of two women."-The New York Times
"Spectacular. . . . Hosseini's writing makes our hearts ache, our stomachs clench and our emotions reel. . . . Hosseini mixes the experiences of these women with imagined scenarios to create a fascinating microcosm of Afghan family life. He shows us the interior lives of the anonymous women living beneath identity-diminishing burqas... Hosseini writes in gorgeous and stirring language of the natural beauty and colorful cultural heritage of his native Afghanistan. . . . Hosseini tells this saddest of stories in achingly beautiful prose through stunningly heroic characters whose spirits somehow grasp the dimmest rays of hope."-USA Today
"Just as good, if not better, than Hosseini's best-selling first book, The Kite Runner"-Newsweek
"Compelling"-New York Magazine
"Hosseini revisits Afghanistan for a compelling story that gives voice to the agonies and hopes of another group of innocents caught up in a war. . . . Mesmerizing . . . A Thousand Splendid Suns is the painful, and at times violent, yet ultimately hopeful story of two women's inner lives. Hosseini's bewitching narrative captures the intimate details of life in a world where it's a struggle to survive, skillfully inserting this human story into the larger backdrop of recent history."-San Francisco Chronicle
"Hosseini . . . has followed his debut novel with another work of strong storytelling and engaging characters. . . . The story pulses with life. . . . Khaled Hosseini is simply a marvelously moving storyteller."-San Jose Mercury News
"Hosseini's story . . . rings true as a universal story about victims of cruelty and those who lack the most fundamental of human rights. . . . Hosseini's work is uplifting, enlightening, universal. The author's love for his characters and for his country is palpable. In the end, A Thousand Splendid Suns is a love letter to a country and to a people. It is a celebration of endurance and survival in the face of unspeakable tragedy. This is a love song to anyone who has ever had a broken heart and to anyone who has ever felt powerless and yet still dares to dream. And yes, Hosseini has done it again."-Fort Worth Star-Telegram
"The novel is beautifully written with descriptive details that will haunt you long after you finish reading it."-Dallas Morning News
"This [novel] tells the startling story of dome...
"Spectacular. . . . Hosseini's writing makes our hearts ache, our stomachs clench and our emotions reel. . . . Hosseini mixes the experiences of these women with imagined scenarios to create a fascinating microcosm of Afghan family life. He shows us the interior lives of the anonymous women living beneath identity-diminishing burqas... Hosseini writes in gorgeous and stirring language of the natural beauty and colorful cultural heritage of his native Afghanistan. . . . Hosseini tells this saddest of stories in achingly beautiful prose through stunningly heroic characters whose spirits somehow grasp the dimmest rays of hope."-USA Today
"Just as good, if not better, than Hosseini's best-selling first book, The Kite Runner"-Newsweek
"Compelling"-New York Magazine
"Hosseini revisits Afghanistan for a compelling story that gives voice to the agonies and hopes of another group of innocents caught up in a war. . . . Mesmerizing . . . A Thousand Splendid Suns is the painful, and at times violent, yet ultimately hopeful story of two women's inner lives. Hosseini's bewitching narrative captures the intimate details of life in a world where it's a struggle to survive, skillfully inserting this human story into the larger backdrop of recent history."-San Francisco Chronicle
"Hosseini . . . has followed his debut novel with another work of strong storytelling and engaging characters. . . . The story pulses with life. . . . Khaled Hosseini is simply a marvelously moving storyteller."-San Jose Mercury News
"Hosseini's story . . . rings true as a universal story about victims of cruelty and those who lack the most fundamental of human rights. . . . Hosseini's work is uplifting, enlightening, universal. The author's love for his characters and for his country is palpable. In the end, A Thousand Splendid Suns is a love letter to a country and to a people. It is a celebration of endurance and survival in the face of unspeakable tragedy. This is a love song to anyone who has ever had a broken heart and to anyone who has ever felt powerless and yet still dares to dream. And yes, Hosseini has done it again."-Fort Worth Star-Telegram
"The novel is beautifully written with descriptive details that will haunt you long after you finish reading it."-Dallas Morning News
"This [novel] tells the startling story of dome...
Readers Top Reviews
Zeeshan AhmedKindle
I had this book for two years, for two years I had been shying away to muster up the courage to read it. Why was I reluctant? Because I knew it had a deep, profound, soul awakening message, a message which I wasn't willing to look in the eye and whole heartedly accept. There are such books, believe me that can speak to you without you even reading them. This book has that mystical power. When I did, a week ago I was engulfed by the beauty of Khaled's writing. Beauty is when you are not willing to believe the characters are fictional. Beauty is when you decide with firm conviction that maybe, in some distant future your child will bear the name 'Aziza' Beauty is when your weeping becomes second nature, when you begin to understand the great human suffering . When you realise that you have been gifted. The mere things that we've been taking for granted, the things that we have at our disposal every single day, there are people out there for whom this may seem as a dream, maybe a dream never fulfilled. You will realize one thing for sure - To respect and honor Human Beings. For a great deal has been endured by humanity. For every person we encounter has a story, wants to be understood, every person wants to be embraced, has dreams, wants to be seen. When you realise this you will start serving, uplifting, giving instead of wanting and getting. This book will break you. Break your ego. Break your desire for needs shoved through the wrath of consumerism. It will break your heart into a million shards. I urge you to read this unforgettable book. Let it take you down heartbreak zone. And liberate a sense of empathy, compassion and meaning that is in you, already. And that which the world so desperately needs.
Helgacakes
Oh boy. Be sure to have a box of tissues nearby when you dive into this book. It is so, SO powerful. I wondered before starting the book if I will compare the book to the Kite Runner. And I didn’t. While both books discuss inequality and injustice in the world, A Thousand Splendid Sun is a powerful must-read in its very own way. The story of the two women left me with such mixed emotions and many tear and snot soaked tissues. I had to pause many times because certain parts are just too excruciating to read and I couldn’t help but be reminded that this brutal story was someone’s reality and it still IS a reality for so many women in the world. While we have come so far in gender equality, there still are sisters who are suffering from injustice today. Many of us are lucky enough to not know it and it’s easy to forget with our first world problems. And that is why I think this book is so important. I urge you to read it and push through the painful heartbreaks that you will encounter in your read. I urge you to recommend this book to everyone who hasn’t already read it.
Sydney Perkins
My heart was torn to pieces and put back together again several times throughout this book, with my heart ending in a state of contentment that is shaded with sadness with the passing of clouds. A wonderfully written tale of tragedy and the endurance of love for one's family members. I did not know how deep love could run, especially when laced with such extreme circumstances and incredible cruelty, and I'm so very grateful for what this tale has taught me about the human spirit and the lives of those of whom I'll never know. This tale surrounding historical events in Afghanistan is superbly written and conveys such a deep degree of emotion that I found myself several times wracked with sadness that has now and will forever leave its mark upon my heart, as it goes out to the people who have had to, and still do, endure pure acts of evil that are unfathomable to me. Aziza's character will now always be with me, because I was born in the same year as she was, and it was harrowing to think about how incredibly different our lives were from each other. They were parallel in many ways, but worlds apart in the end, and I'm pained to think of how my life would be if I had not been born as an American. A sad but wonderful tale that I think any reader would enjoy and grieve over.
JustReading2008
To be honest, I didn't think I would finish this book. I got through perhaps the first 50 pages and thought, there is no way I can finish this. I got through the first 100 pages and thought, I definitely will have to stop reading this. But, as you can see, I did finish it, and feel compelled to rate it 5 stars. This is *not* light reading. It is extremely heart-wrenching from start to finish. (I would also say that, if you are a survivor of domestic violence, be prepared for very descriptive passages of beatings, rape, strangulation, isolation, and other horrific abuse.) From the horrors of abuse to the horrors of war, this book does not leave any dark part of the human heart unexplored. And that is why it is so difficult to read. At the same time, it was not a book I could give up on. The character dynamics in the book are so complex that, after a while, they truly seemed like real people. The enduring power of Mariam's spirit is, all at once, beautiful, inspiring, and heartbreaking. And, even in a time of war, love and friendship ultimately survive. This story also gives some insight to Western readers about what Afghanistan was like, pre-9/11. I highly recommend this book and will be reading more by this author.
Spanish Inquisition
I bought this forsomething to read on lunch breaks. I knew it would be somber, but I am a 32 year old man, and a stoic at that. The first tears, unbidden, caught me by surprise when a certain foot was found on a rooftop. I knew I was in serious trouble, so I closed the book immediately. After work I have skipped running errands, failed to eat anything whatsoever, and stayed up 3 hours past my bedtime. I sobbed so loud when Mariam went to the stadium that my neighbor woke up and turned on her tv. Even now I still fight back waves of sorrow. Curse you, Khaled. I didn't expect to catch feelings today. I was going to get a haircut and make a hamburger and play video games, but now I'm a basic white girl wearing footie pajamas as she cries into a box of wine. Really, I'm laying in bed fending off sniffles, and I've filled my tiny trashcan with half a box of tissues. I had to get a different pillow from my closet. Don't tell my friends that I cried. I've never felt anything for Afghan women before this. This book is terrible and beautiful. This book should break you.
