Having finished all my holiday reading, I had to turn to Lynsey's books, and this was one of them. Khaled Hosseini has written two novels of life in Afghanistan, and by now I've read both of them. This is how good A Thousand Splendid Suns was! I had to get his other book to read it as well.
Afghanistan is one of those places which we hear about all the time on the news, and yet we really don't know that much about it. Perhaps in this regard, it's like Northern Ireland to those outside the province. Using the historical framework of Afghanistan's recent history - the overthrow of the monarchy, the invasion of the Soviets, the civil war, and the emergence of the Taliban - Hosseini weaves his story around the main main female characters, Mariam and Laila.
It's a great story, but you must be warned, the stories are frank and horrendous, with some terrible life experiences related. The reader is quickly sympathetic for the two women, whose stories are found in each part of the book, and soon coming together.
A Thousand Splendid Suns is a story of life, love, death, and the harsh treatment of women in a Muslim country. A good read.
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