![]() ![]() His tale is a powerful, harrowing depiction of Afghanistan, but also a lyrical evocation of the lives and enduring hopes of its resilient characters. Hosseini gives a forceful but nuanced portrait of a patriarchal despotism where women are agonizingly dependent on fathers, husbands and especially sons, the bearing of male children being their sole path to social status. Against a backdrop of unending war, Mariam and Laila become allies in an asymmetrical battle with Rasheed, whose violent misogyny-"There was no cursing, no screaming, no pleading, no surprised yelps, only the systematic business of beating and being beaten"-is endorsed by custom and law. Eighteen later, Rasheed takes another wife, 14-year-old Laila, a smart and spirited girl whose only other options, after her parents are killed by rocket fire, are prostitution or starvation. Khaled Hosseini broke the story up into parts, by character: the first. Mariam is the scorned illegitimate daughter of a wealthy businessman, forced at age 15 into marrying the 40-year-old Rasheed, who grows increasingly brutal as she fails to produce a child. A Thousand Splendid Suns is a novel containing three parts, 367 pages, and 51 chapters. The story covers three decades of anti-Soviet jihad, civil war and Taliban tyranny through the lives of two women. ![]() ![]() ![]() With another searing epic of Afghanistan in turmoil. Afghan-American novelist Hosseini follows up his bestselling The Kite Runner A Thousand Splendid Suns is a stunning story set against the unpredictable occasions of Afghanistan’s most recent thirty years, this truly is a masterpiece by Khaled Hosseini. ![]()
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