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Binding: PaperbackEAN: 9780747585893 ISBN: 074758589X Label: Bloomsbury Publishing PLC Manufacturer: Bloomsbury Publishing PLC Number Of Pages: 432 Publication Date: September 18, 2008 Publisher: Bloomsbury Publishing PLC Studio: Bloomsbury Publishing PLC Related Items:
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 Rating: - brilliant This is one of the best books I have ever read. The story of two women brought together in the most awful, despicable circumstances which are totally out of their control. The husband Rasheed is probably one of the most hateful, violent characters I have ever come across and Hosseini's writing is so powerful that you believe these people really exist and I hated Rasheed with a passsion. This book had my heart thumping at a failed escape and crying at one of the most poignant chapters set in the Ghaza Stadium. Like the Kite Runner this book does end with a sense of hope but again, getting to that end still fills you with sadness. This is one book I will remember for along time. Rating: - Couldn't put it down!I don't normally write reviews but I had to comment on A Thousand Splendid Suns which I have just finished. I couldn't put it down. It is written with understanding and feeling for the women of Afganistan. What they have had to go through is unthinkable in our western society but the author has managed to make it upbeat and shows that good overcomes evil eventually. This book will stay with me for a long time and I would thoroughly recommend it. Rating: - Highly RecommendedEach generation throws us a curveball of literacy genius; this is the one for this generation. Rarely is there a book that is so compelling that it reaches into the depth of your soul and make you reflect long after you have finished it. This book was given to me whilst deployed to Afghanistan but not read until my return. It is the only book that I have recommended to many people but would not share my copy. My daughter has now started reading it and interesting to see both the computer and mobile are off. This is a must read for all generations. Rating: - An Afghani `War And Peace' That Promises To Be One of 2007's Best Novels Khaled Hosseini's "A Thousand Splendid Suns" is a genuine instant literary classic, and one destined to be remembered as one of 2007's best novels. It should be compared favorably to such legendary Russian novels like "War and Peace" and "Doctor Zhivago". And yet it is ironic to compare Hosseini's latest novel to such classic works written by Tolstoy and Pasternak, especially in light of their country's recent sordid history with Afghanistan, Hosseini's country of birth. However, I believe that this comparison is most apt, since he joins them in recounting most vividly, an intense, horrific period in his homeland's recent history, which shows no immediate prospect yet of a peaceful resolution. Hosseini also demonstrates that he is both a literary master of exquisite detail and dialogue which so easily reminds me of Salman Rushdie's extraordinary literary skills; these are demonstrated most notably in his great early novel "Midnight's Children". Indeed Hosseini, like Rushdie, is yet another South Asian writer committed to writing great novels in the English language, demonstrating once more the Indian subcontinent's rapid ascendancy as an important source of original first-rate English language literature. Fans of "The Kite Runner", his critically acclaimed literary debut, will rejoice after reading his second novel, and share my observation that he has become one of our most compelling writers of contemporary fiction. Afghanistan's tumultuous, tragic recent history is told in riveting, exquisite detail by Hosseini, which is seen through the eyes of two extraordinary young intelligent women. We are introduced first to Mariam, the harami (bastard) daughter of wealthy Jalil Khan, a prominent Herat businessman, and his servant, Nana. And then later, but still early on in the novel, we will meet Laila, the youngest child of Babi and Fariba, both members of Kabul's early 1970s educated middle class. Mariam's heart-wrenching efforts in trying to gain her father's acceptance as his legitimate daughter lead unexpectedly to personal tragedy and a new life as the wife of Rasheed, an elderly Kabul shoemaker. Against her own free-spirited will, and inquisitive nature, Mariam reluctantly submits to age-old Islamic Afghani customs even as she realizes that some fellow Afghani women - Khan's legitimate daughters from his three wives - are acquiring a Western-oriented educated lifestyle in the provincial city of Herat. In Kabul, Afghanistan's capital, the relatively illiterate, young Mariam soon finds some solace in a brief, tenuous friendship with the older Fariba. Fariba's husband Babi is a Kabul University-educated former teacher fully conversant in both traditional Afghani literature and Western civilization. When Kabul erupts into a bloody civil war soon after the fall of its Communist regime, Babi will teach their daughter Laila both modern Western mathematics and medieval Afghani poetry at home; its war-ravaged streets permanently ending her attendance at a local Western-oriented primary school. Hosseini has cleverly compared and contrasted traditional Islamic Afghani customs with Western civilized values, especially with respect to women, through the unexpected metamorphosis of Laila's character from a free-spirited, intelligent school girl to a tradition-bound Afghani bride, as Rasheed's second wife, forced into this arrangement by both a romantic farewell tryst with Tariq, her childhood best friend and lover, and a personal tragedy brought on by a vicious civil war on the streets of Kabul between rival Afghani tribal warlords. Eventually she will find a soul mate and a friend in the older Mariam, both realizing that they've become virtual slaves to their older husband, who is all too willing to hide behind fundamentalist Islamic tradition as he makes their lives within his household a living embodiment of Hell. Nearly fifty years of tumultuous, often bloody, Afghani history are described in graphic detail via Hosseini's elegant, poetic prose. The 1973 coup d'etat against the Afghani monarchy, led by a member of the royal family, is followed five years later by another coup against the self-proclaimed president for life, leading inexorably to a Communist regime and the Soviet occupation of Afghanistan. The relatively tranquil Soviet occupation, and then later, evacuation of Kabul is succeeded by the bloody civil war amongst warlords, and the subsequent rise and fall of the Taliban regime. All of these events are interwoven neatly by Hosseini into the tragic lives of his two heroines. And yet, as readers will find out eventually, not all is lost in the mutually entangled lives of torment and pain for these two women, since Hosseni does end his novel on a hopeful, indeed triumphant, note. A triumphant note that is most worthy for a novel which successfully carries through the ambitious literary scope of Hosseni's fictionalized recent history of Afghanistan, much in the same fashion as his literary predecessors Tolstoy and Pasternak. A splendid 21st Century novel that is most worthy of comparison to "War and Peace" and "Doctor Zhivago". Rating: - Fantastic bookThis book was amazing - easy to read, well written, challenging, deep, disturbing and ultimitely uplifting. A well rounded book I would recommend to anyone. Khaled Hosseini has a style of his own and writes with confidence. He explores the turmoil for women in Afganaistan from Soviet rule, through interim governments and eventually during the Taliban rule. In the latter period, he explores the impact on women of being virtually imprissoned in their homes and not allowed out unless escorted by a male member of their family. The degradation of their lives, lack of medical facilities and inability to provide for their families is handled without resorting to sentimentality.  Try searching the Internet for "A Thousand Splendid Suns" or Ebay for "A Thousand Splendid Suns". You might also be interested in the following great products:
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