A Thousand Splendid Suns

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My Review

Khaled Hosseini's second novel, A Thousand Splendid Suns, is a story of two women and their lifes in Afghanistan over the past 40 years. Mariam was born an illegal child and was forced to marry Rasheed, an abusive husband at age 15. Rasheed is an ugly, cruel man inside and out. Her husband broke her spirit with his abuse and was forced to wear a burqa against her wishis. Laila is an attractive girl who lives just up the street. She was born to educated, liberal parents and enjoyed the freedoms Mariam was restricted from.

During the wars of the 1980's and 1990's, a rocket destroyed Laila's home with her parents in it. This tragedy an unexpected pregnancy forces Laila to become Rasheed's second wife. After an initial rivalry, Mariam and Laila become best friends.

A Thousand Splendid Suns does a wonderful job of giving glimpses and insight into the daily life in Afghanistan through the eyes of two very different women who become the closest allies.

A Thousand Splendid Suns

A Thousand Splendid Suns

Amazon Price: $1.79 (as of 02/14/2012)Buy Now
List Price: $25.95

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.

“A Thousand Splendid Suns takes you to war torn Kabul and personalize Afghanistan in a beautiful way.”

A Thousand Splendid Suns

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A Thousand Splendid Suns is a breathtaking story set against the volatile events of Afganistan's last thirty years - from the soviet invasion to the reign of the Taliban to post-Taliban rebuilding - that puts the violence, fear, hope and faith of this country in intimate, human terms. It is a tale of two generations of characters brought jarringly together by the tragic sweep of war, where personal lives - the struggle to survive, raise a family, find happiness - are inextricable from the history playing out around them.

Propelled by the same storytelling instinct that made The Kite Runner a beloved classic, A Thousand Splendid Suns is at once a remarkable chronicle of three decades of Afgan history and a deeply moving account of family and friendship. It is a striking, heart-wrenching novel of an unforgiving time, an unlikely friendship, and an indestructible love - a stunning accomplishment.

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Love it! Great read.

myamart says:

Kind of depressing for me, otherwise a good book.

Estephanie says:

it was a great book that makesmade me cry..

divya says:

really a lively novel with so many touching incidences.

aziz says:

a touching truth. oppressed women

bolsen19 says:

I loved this book. It really gives you a new understanding of Afganistan and whats happening in the world today.

Sorry, not my cup of tea.

Young Outlaw says:

crazy tupac song... holla if u hear me remix... recommended to all the true street soldiers hustling to survive

Young Outlaw says:

ya feel me? holla if u hear me

Young Outlaw says:

A true page -turner....espically if u wanna read a novel of depressed events

Hassaan says:

I hate it is really depressing

Amy says:

it is utterly depressing. Nothing good happens to this woman...

 
view all 100 comments

Khaled Hosseini's Bio

Hosseini, a Farsi-speaking Afghan, was born in Kabul, Afghanistan. His father was involved with the Afghanistan Foreign Ministry and his mother was a teacher at a girls high school in Kabul. In 1970, Hosseini and his family moved to Tehran, Iran, where his father worked for the Embassy of Afghanistan. In 1973, Hosseini's family returned to Kabul, and Hosseini's youngest brother was born in July of that year. Several months later, the former King of Afghanistan, Zahir Shah, was ousted from power in a bloodless coup that was orchestrated by Zahir's cousin, Daoud Khan.

In 1976, Hosseini's father obtained a job in Paris and moved the family there. They chose not to return to Afghanistan because communists had seized power through a bloody coup. Instead, in 1980 they sought political asylum in the United States and made their residence in San Jose, California. Having left Afghanistan with only the clothes on their back, they were forced to subsist on welfare and food stamps for a brief period.

Hosseini graduated from Independence High School in San Jose in 1984 and enrolled at Santa Clara University, where he earned a bachelor's degree in biology in 1988. The following year, he entered the University of California, San Diego, School of Medicine, where he earned his M.D. in 1993. He completed his residency in internal medicine at Cedars-Sinai Medical Center in Los Angeles in 1996. He practiced medicine until a year and half after the release of The Kite Runner. As of 2007 he lives in San Jose. source

Watch the author, Khaled Hosseini discuss A Thousand Splendid Suns

Khaled Hosseini discusses A Thousand Splendid Suns
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Great Quote :

"It wasn't so much the whistling itself, Laila thought later, but the seconds between the start of it and the impact. The brief and interminable time of feeling suspended. The not knowing. The waiting. Like a defendant about to hear the verdict."

Have you read Hosseini's first novel, The Kite Runner?

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Khaled Hosseini's official site

Check it out!

Khaled Hosseini, Official Site
Provides information on the Afghan novel, The Kite Runner.

A Thousand Splendid Suns Study Guide and Synopsis

The Sherborn Library
Study guides. author information. information about the historical context of A Thousand Splendid Suns.
A Thousand Splendid Suns Summary
Summary for a book by Marcelo Carvalho - A Thousand Splendid Suns, laura bush loved it. Isabel Allende loved it. Howard Stern loved it; so did the New York times. Afghan-born Khaled Hosseini''s 2003 novel the kite runner arrived at the perfect post-9/11 moment, hooking readers curious about the sudd

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What's the blogosphere have to say about A Thousand Splendid Suns?

What Up Western?: A Thousand Splendid Suns
From family to love to friendships, sadness, joy, and struggles, A Thousand Splendid Suns has it all....
Failing Great Expectations
I would also like to read Hosseini's A Thousand Splendid Suns as well. Undoubtedly, Tess of the d'Ubervilles...
[화통토크] 박정현 “콘서트때 관객과 눈맞춤…왜? '순간의 소통'이랍니다!”
(??? ??? ??? ? ??????)? ?Khaled Hosseini(??? ????)?...

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  • Reply
    Nausheina Haniff Mar 14, 2011 @ 2:42 pm | delete
    The author of the book gave the readers a very negative thought about Muslim men and women.He made it seem as though Muslim men all over the world abuse & just use women and that women are stupid and that they can not think for themselves.This is not true,People have the wrong end about Islam...... :(
  • Reply
    mlim Oct 12, 2010 @ 10:31 am | delete
    I'm using this book and this review for a paper. Who's review is this, "A Thousand Splendid Suns takes you to war torn Kabul and personalize Afghanistan in a beautiful way??
  • Reply
    mastoora Oct 10, 2010 @ 12:51 pm | delete
    is there any movie for A Thousand Splendid Suns? please email me to let me knoe thnx!
  • Reply
    Mastoora Oct 10, 2010 @ 12:35 pm | delete
    this is the most amazing book i have ever read i love it. Khaled Hosseini is one my my very favourite authors. awesome book dude. I am from afghanista as well, and i have lived there in kabul during the war, so i knew exactly how it felt living in a war torn country. i could really relate to almost everything that is written in that book. as a women especially i know how mariam and laila felt at times because i have also been through very similar situations in life in afghanistan then moving back and forth to Kabul then to pakistan.
  • Reply
    Jodi_k Sep 12, 2010 @ 10:46 am | delete
    An excellent book, but The Kite Runner was better. I think he captured the feelings of boys better than women.
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