I nearly didn't read this book because I wasn't all the keen after reading "The Kite Runner" (Amir drove me crazy with his ineptitude.). But I'm so glad a friend convinced me to read it. Powerful story.

Once again Khaled Hosseini impresses me with his impeccable ability to take you there with his writing. As with The Kite Runner, it is a very sad story but if you're willing to step out and experience what was likely the reality of many women of this time, then this is the book to read. Atossa Leoni does an excellent job narrating. I would recommend this book and hope to see this authors name again soon!

This book, like many I read, was very difficult emotionally in parts, but the story is absolutely worth it in the end. A book of struggle and such unfairness that has you angry in many parts of the book. I really enjoyed the kite runner, but I liked this book at least as much if not a bit more. I would give 5 stars just for the book, but I have to reduce it 1 star because I really struggled to love the narrator. I know part of it is just "me", because I typically don't care for for female narrators as much. But a lot of it is that I didn't feel a connection of the narrator AS the women. I felt her flat and detached and difficult to listen to at times. The sentence structure unnatural and having pauses in places they didn't belong. However her accent and pronunciation of non English words I found very good and added to the story. Once I got into the story and the characters enough, I found the narrator easier to listen to and tune out the things I didn't care for. A worthy book in my opinion nonetheless.

Well-deserving of its success. A Thousand Splendid Suns has a bit of a storybook quality, thrusting two Afghan women from drastically different backgrounds together in virtual imprisonment under a tyrant of a man, but it's also a rich window into daily life over several decades in a country that once had hopes of modernization, but became devastated by war and locked in the iron grip of fundamentalist Taliban rulers, under whom women were all but stripped of rights.

For Western readers who know little about Afghanistan, or growing up female in that part of the world, this novel provides a vivid tour of a reality very different from our own, one filled with oppression, despair, heartbreak, horror, and profound unfairness. Yet, Hosseini tells his tale with simple, unassuming honesty, and like the most (genuinely) inspiring writers, locates beauty, hope, and love amid the darkness. The novel's day-by-day and year-by-year sweep through the intertwined histories of his two protagonists and Afghanistan itself, is absorbing and full of story. And his sympathy for all his characters, even the villains, gives it a lasting resonance as a reflection on the capacity of all people for both goodness and harm, and a tribute to the part of the human spirit that won't surrender to those who rule by fear.

I can't compare this book to the Kite Runner, which I haven't read, but I think it stands powerfully on its own. Only the most jaded or incurious readers, I think, will be unmoved.

This book is really good to know isramic culture. Also, loved the narration by Atossa leoni. It was clear and touching.

The twists of fate, hate, violence, war and terrible and horrifying treatment of women makes this book hard to listen to. Yet, in the end, it is a tale of surviving and loving. The two women who are the center of the story are heroines. It is dramatic and gripping. But not a book to listen to while driving because tears will flow and block your vision. The only thing that kept me from giving it five stars was the deep sadness I felt while listening.

Khaled continues his great work as usual but Atossa's performance brings the story to life

I pray no Muslim cleric puts a jihad on this author. He took a big risk in portraying the culture of Islam and how these men in the Middle East operate. It is a caveman culture of male domination over women. The more I listened to this book the more I hated Rasheed and this culture. I pray that Sharia law never takes hold in America. I don't see how it could. That is what these a-holes fear, that they can't keep their power because their women become educated and westernized. Since we in America have a technoligical advantage and a history of women's rights I can't see Sharia law taking hold in America. America will not tolerate it. But the fact remains that this mentality exists in these Middle Eastern countries. And frankly, it makes me sick.

The only fault in this book is that it follows "The Kite Runner". Without the expectations I had after reading TKR I would have loved this book. I still 'love' it, but it leaves me wanting more. The story reveals a great deal more about the Afghani people and their culture. At the end of a Hosseini book I'm left loving the characters. They are so real and so Afghan. This is a great read, but beware of heightened expectations.

This is a lovely yet tragic story....so sad to realize that this sorrow still continues in our world today. The story will make you truly grateful for what you have. I would recommend this book.