War is hell. It tears bodies and families apart. It strikes at the worst times. It forces strangers together in the most intimate and humiliating ways. It destroys innocents with cruel indifference and passes harmlessly over the truly culpable. It leaves a trail of tears over the land, its people and time with barely a ray of hope for anyone. Such is the world of A THOUSAND SPLENDID SUNS,...
more War is hell. It tears bodies and families apart. It strikes at the worst times. It forces strangers together in the most intimate and humiliating ways. It destroys innocents with cruel indifference and passes harmlessly over the truly culpable. It leaves a trail of tears over the land, its people and time with barely a ray of hope for anyone. Such is the world of A THOUSAND SPLENDID SUNS, Khaled Hosseini's second remarkable book.
Like THE KITE RUNNER, this story is set in Hosseini's native Afghanistan during the roughly 30 years beginning in the early 1970s, when the country was at peace and 15-year old Mariam was still a young village girl living a hard life with her bitter mother and a rich, sometimes affectionate father she rarely sees and barely knows. The story follows through the years of Soviet occupation and the holy warriors -- mujahideen -- who resisted them and the later years of the Taliban who took their place and imposed their heinous collective will upon women in the name of God. It introduces us to the young, smart and beautiful Laila and shows us how her life becomes intertwined with Mariam's. It forces us to endure the treacherous brute Rasheed and the oppressive shadow he casts over all their lives. Finally, the arrival of al-Qaeda and a new kind of war.
Hosseini combines historical fact and imaginative plot twists with the skill of a master story teller. The book at times is as hard to bear as the lives of the characters you come care for, but the ray of optimistic light that sometimes pours through is as dazzling as a thousand splendid suns.
hide
Yes (0) 
No (0) 
