A Thousand Splendid Suns by Khaled Hosseini

Author: Khaled Hosseini

Reading level: Adult

Publisher: Penguin Group

Rated 10/10

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

MY REVIEW
I LOVE THIS BOOK! After reading The Kite Runner you would think you couldn't do any better, Khaled Hosseini has proven that wrong. Khaled Hosseini has a way with playing with human emotions very well with his characters. I cried when Mariam found out the hard truth about her father, I cried when Laila left her daughter at the orphange, I cried because the way women were treated in this book and in real life in Afghanistan. It took me less then a day to read this book, I literally couldn't tear myself away from it. Most books I read are all too predictable, I couldn't guess what was gonna happen next in this book. His characters feel all too real to me and you feel for them. I would suggest this book to anyone looking for a good read, it's one of those books you will be thinking about long after reading. Also this book teaches a lot about Afghanistan, it's culture, and history. Since reading The Kite Runner and this book I'm more aware of what has and is happening there. This book also makes me happy to live the life I happen to live because I know some women will never get that chance.

This book is about Mariam and Laila, two women married to the same man. Mariam was born a harami, a bastard, between a wealthy man and his servant. Mariam is raised by her mother and worships her father. Mariam's mother has nothing good to say about her father and Mariam learns the hard way what her father really thinks about her. Soon after her father marries her off to a shoemaker, Rasheed, and she moves to Kabul to live with him. Laila was born and raised in Kabul by her parents. She lives a life where women are free to go to school and work during the time of Communists. She constantly lives in the shadow of her two older brothers who are off fighting the Communists. Laila is best friends with Tariq, but when they  get older feelings start to develop between them. But things go very wrong and Laila loses everyone she loves. Saved by Rasheed and harboring a secret she marries him. At first Mariam and Laila don't get along with each other, Mariam thinks the much younger Laila wants her to be her servant and steal her husband away. But Rasheed's cruelty brings them together and Mariam thinks of Laila as the daughter she never had and would do anything to protect her.

                                                                      

The Kite Runner by Khaled Hosseini

Author: Khaled Hosseini

Reading Level: Adult

Publisher: Penguin Group

Rated 10/10

In his debut novel, The Kite Runner, Khaled Hosseini accomplishes what very few contemporary novelists are able to do. He manages to provide an educational and eye-opening account of a country's political turmoil--in this case, Afghanistan--while also developing characters whose heartbreaking struggles and emotional triumphs resonate with readers long after the last page has been turned over. And he does this on his first try.

Some of the plot's turns and twists may be somewhat implausible, but Hosseini has created characters that seem so real that one almost forgets that The Kite Runner is a novel and not a memoir. At a time when Afghanistan has been thrust into the forefront of America's collective consciousness ("people sipping lattes at Starbucks were talking about the battle for Kunduz"), Hosseini offers an honest, sometimes tragic, sometimes funny, but always heartfelt view of a fascinating land. Perhaps the only true flaw in this extraordinary novel is that it ends all too soon. --Gisele Toueg --This text refers to the Hardcover edition.

MY REVIEW
This book is brilliant, one of the best books I have read in awhile. I'm one of those criers who cry when I see or read anything sad, this book had me in tears. When it came to the part of what happened to Hassan that changed everything between the boys, I had to put the book down for an hour because I couldn't stop crying and thinking about it. I wasn't prepared for that because I went into this book reading very few reviews or anything about it. This book is full of history and the culture of the people in Afghanistan, I'm not gonna lie, before this book I never knew what a Hazara or a Pashtun was. I didn't know people in Afghanistan had people and differences like that, I was ignorant to everything, not something I'm very proud of either.

This book tells the story of two young boys, one Pashtun(Amir), and one Hazara(Hassan) in Afghanistan before any of the wars broke out during the 70s. Amir is a boy who lives in wealth and Hassan is the son of Amir's father's servant. Hassan would do anything in his power for Amir and one day after a kite fighting competition while kite running to get a kite for Amir he comes across the neighborhood bullies and something terrible happens that Amir happens to see but does nothing to stop. Amir carries the guilt with him even when he moves to America. Now 25 years later Amir's father's old friend asks him to come to Afghanistan. While there he is told about his family's dark secret and his connection to Hassan he knew nothing about and he finds a way for redemption by helping Hassan's son when he could never help Hassan. I'm warning people this is no fairy tale with a Disney ending. This is a story about friendship,culture,death,politics, religion, war, family, love, honor,and redemption, a story that will stay with you long after you're done reading it.