Book-A Thousand Splendid Suns

The second novel by the acclaimed author Khaled Hosseini, A Thousand Splendid Suns takes us again to Afghanistan, dealing with the political turmoils by examining the effect on personal lives.

The Kite Runner was Hosseini's first book, and it was great. My only problem with it being too many coincidences happened. This book is better certainly in the regard, and overall, it is better written. You can see that the author is improving in his skills. But is the story better? Is it as compelling as the first novel?

Thankfully, the answer is yes. It may be a bit better overall, though maybe not drawing the reader in quite so closely as the first book. A Thousand Splendid Suns takes place entirely in Afghanistan, and so leaves out the emigrant experience, the new person in America aspect, and I think that adds some distance between the reader and the characters. But I do not think it is a bad thing for the story at all. In fact, I think it is needed, for the story is as brutal, possible more brutal than The Kite Runner.

The basics of the story is the relationship between two women, Miriam and Laila, both bound together be being forced into marriage to Rasheed. It is terrible to see each of them brutalized by this man, and it mirrors the brutalization of the country, as first Russian forces fight with a guerrilla army made up of many factions, and then the factions themselves waging a terrible civil war. And finally the coming of the Taliban, perhaps the most brutality the country had witnessed in modern times.

Hosseini is very skillful in looking at the lives of the two women, the intense dislike they have for one another at first that grows to a love, a sisterhood that ultimately gives grace and meaning to their lives, at the same time as the inexplicable tragedy.

The Kite Runner left us wondering if this was a one time deal from Hosseini. A Thousand Splendid Suns answers clearly that he is an author still growing in skill, with compelling stories still to be told.

This is an excellent book, and I am still thinking about it a week later, and looking forward to the next offering the author gives us.