A Thousand Splendid Suns by Khaled Hosseini

My husband did not like when I would sit down to read A Thousand Splendid Suns because he knew it meant I would be offline to him and the rest of the world for the hours I would read, and when I would finally reluctantly shut the book for a late bedtime I would go and straightway tell him the tragic and gripping events I had just experienced. He would always say, I assume only half seriously, “I never want to read that book. Why can’t you read a happy book?” Why did I read a book with such a tragically realistic account of women’s lives in Afghanistan? Well, first because I had heard wonderful things about it. And second, because I knew I would learn something. And I did.

I see A Thousand Splendid Suns as a moving story about three different things: it is a story about the nation and people of Afghanistan; it is a story about the women of Afghanistan; and mostly it is a story about love and sacrifice.

I have read classic novels littered with bits of French, Spanish, or German, but this is the first time I read a book scattered with Farsi. Even after reading this book, I am still extremely uneducated about the Middle East and therefore do not feel qualified to make sweeping statements and will not do so in this review. But I am grateful to Hosseini for bringing their people to my consciousness. After experiencing this book, I now feel the humanness of the people of the Middle East and got to briefly glimpse their reality. I also had a notion of understanding a people whose country endures so much and how such a thing can weld the two together. One character sums it up well when he says Afghanistan is nothing pretty to look at and but is still there after all it has endured.

Only recently did the world become aware of the atrocities of the Taliban, especially against women. Women were forbidden to work, leave the house without a male relative, required to cover head to toe in burqas, denied basic health care, publicly beaten, and had no access to the law or justice for crimes committed against them. As I would read I would remind myself that I was in high school as this was happening. Sometimes the best way to respect your freedoms and gather the courage to fight for them is to experience what life is like without them. Suffice it to say I will try never to take my freedoms for granted; I live in a country where as a woman I am an equal and can make my world what I wish it to be.

Hosseini’s ability to look deep into the human soul and accurately convey the deepest emotions makes him an amazing writer. A Thousand Splendid Suns is a story about two women, one who is born with nearly nothing and one born with real chances for success. They both tragically lose everything, and it is precisely this that brings them together. Hosseini uses their intertwining stories to convey universal truths; the morals of the story that made me cry. First, the only life not worth living is one without love and friendship. Second, the only way to truly leave a mark upon the world after you are gone is to give your life to others.

As historical fiction, A Thousand Splendid Suns is educational as well as moving and even life changing. Khaled Hosseini expertly unravels the story about Afghanistan, its people, and shows the worst and best in us. It is a modern classic, or at least a really good book that I would recommend to anyone.