A Thousand Splendid Suns

A Novel

By: Khaled Hosseini

Narrated by: Atossa Leoni

After more than two years on the bestseller lists, Khaled Hosseini returns with a beautiful, riveting, and haunting novel of enormous contemporary relevance.

A Thousand Splendid Suns is a breathtaking story set against the volatile events of Afghanistan's last thirty years—from the Soviet invasion to the reign of the Taliban to post-Taliban rebuilding—that puts the violence, fear, hope and faith of this country in intimate, human terms. It is a tale of two generations of characters brought jarringly together by the tragic sweep of war, where personal lives—the struggle to survive, raise a family, find happiness—are inextricable from the history playing out around them.

Propelled by the same storytelling instinct that made The Kite Runner a beloved classic, A Thousand Splendid Suns is at once a remarkable chronicle of three decades of Afghan history and a deeply moving account of family and friendship. It is a striking, heartwrenching novel of an unforgiving time, an unlikely friendship, and an indestructible love—a stunning accomplishment.©2007 TKR Publications, LLC. All rights reserved; (P)2007 Simon and Schuster Inc. All rights reserved.

Completely brilliant

It's not a good thing when you're driving along in your car crying, yelling, cheering and experiencing all kinds of powerful emotions!

But..that's the reaction I had to this masterpiece about 2 amazing women who begin as enemies and end as soul mates because of all they had to live through.

We have NO idea how lucky we are, living in the freedom called America, until we read about the lives of those who suffer in third world countries. It's hard to even imagine that there are still people who believe and behave as Rashid did...and yet...we know there are.

And, while this doesn't purport to be a true story..it might as well be because it is so believable that you picture everything as if it was in front of you. It is magnificently written and, the reader is equally as wonderful.

I loved Kite Runner and I equally loved a Thousand Splendid Suns. I could not stop listening and I anxiously await his next novel.

The more things change, the more they remain...

Yesterday, October 1, 2012, in Afghanistan, a women was executed, killed, murdered, call it what you will, for allegedly committing adultery. Her male partner was unpunished. In the same newscast that reported this execution, the beautiful, young, orphaned faces of a first in that country girl soccer team were shown celebrating their freedom to... to... just be girls and play soccer. Such is a taste of life and death in Afghanistan. Such is a taste of A Thousand Splendid Suns.

The book is simply and beautifully written. If you liked the Kite Runner, you will probably appreciate this book also.

Gripping

I really enjoyed this book although it tells a heartbreaking story. If you want a real life account of some of today's oppressed middle eastern women and the lives they lead, read this book! It's compelling.

Hopefully ever after

This is not great literaure, but it is a great story, narrating important history in what seems to me a balanced way.

Instead of a happy ending this 2003 novel ends on a "hopefully ever after" note - but we know that hope continues to dim as the West continues to interfere ineffectively in Afghanistan (i.e. militarily rather than through NGOs, etc) in a quagmire we largely generated - We keep messing it up to a point that violent assistance seems to become the only means - or so are told by those who favour violent assitance...

I think this is an important novel, but I am tired of fellow Canadians using the horrors described in this book to justify our war (rather than the traditional Peackeeping done by our miltary).

The Splendid Sun

We are introduced to two women whose lives eventually cross and entangle in a very intimate way. The narration is masterful, as the author (while invisable) leaves the reader in suspense. Just when one thinks the plot is figured out, there is a shift (it is an earned shift with all the clues there when one goes back and considers the events). My favorite line "A man's accusing finger always finds a woman." It is a woman's novel dealing with women's issues. Perfect for teaching in a women's lit. class. The best book I've read in a very long time.