Hosseini, Khaled. A Thousand Splendid Suns. Penguin Group, 2007.
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A Thousand Splendid Suns written by Khaled Hosseini is about a woman’s journey of finding herself while growing up in Kabul, Afghanistan. It is about her life journey from growing up as a child to becoming a prisoner in her own life. Mariam grew up being the shame of her father, the result of infidelity. She lived with her mother in a one room Kolba on the outskirts of Kabul. She was a child who desperately wanted to know her father and her other brothers and sisters but was not allowed to as her father was the wealthiest man in Kabul; and a scandal of infidelity would ruin his reputation. As Mariam grew older she became bolder. She ventured off to Kabul by herself to see her father and meet her siblings but this venture killed her mother, not just emotionally but physically as well. When Mariam’s mother died she was fifteen years old and went to live with her father regardless of his reputation. She was able to live with him for a few weeks before he and his three wives arranged her marriage to a thirty-six year old shoe maker. This was the beginning of Mariam’s life as she becomes a prisoner of it being abused emotionally and physically by her husband. While starting her new life Mariam experiences many more devastating losses but also gains a new friendship with her neighbors’ daughter, Laila, as she too experiences the most horrid loss of her parents to the war of the Wahdat faction and the Jihad. These losses from the war set the tone of the story as many more lives are lost and the Taliban gains control. Throughout the book, Hosseini was able to vividly describe the emotions that the characters experienced. He describes the life they had to live in a small village to the wars they had to live through and the strict changes the Taliban enforced. As a reader Hosseini makes if feel like he/she is experiencing it for themselves. A Thousand Splendid Suns was a powerful tale of heroism through a dark time of the lives of two brave women and it really makes one understand what it must be like to live in a third world country experiencing war and constantly fearing for ones life.
aegis 2008
Ashley Fox
