Book: A Thousand Splendid Suns

Author: Khaled Hosseini

Review: Not quite as good as the Kite Runner, but still a page turner.  The story centers around two Afghan women, Mariam and Laila.  Both stories are as heartbreaking as the story of Afghanistan itself.  Mariam was raised in little more than a hut, because she was a bastard child.  While her father visits occasionally, she has never been out of her village.  She request to come to town for her fifteenth birthday.  When her father fails to come get her, she goes to town.  This results in her Mother's suicide, and her father giving her away to be married to a much older man.  Her husband, Rasheed, is very strict, making her wear the Burka, and after failing to produce a son, he has little use for her. 

While Mariam's children are stillborn, her neighbors have two sons and a baby girl.  The boys go off to fight, and Laila is enjoying her freedom in Kabul.  But as war rages on, Laila's parents are killed just as they are about to flee Kabul, and Laila finds herself having to also marry Rasheed.  What these two women manage to live through is amazing. 

Kudos to Hosseini, for keeping us aware of Afghanistan.