Book review: A Thousand Splendid Suns by Khaled Hosseini

Link to Khaled Hosseini's web site: Khaled Hosseini

Print Length: 432 pages

ISBN-13: 978-1594483851

Plot Summary: Born a generation apart and with very different ideas about love and family, Mariam and Laila are two women brought jarringly together by war, loss and fate. As they endure the escalating dangers around them-in their home as well as in the streets of Kabul-they form a bond that makes them both sisters and mother-daughter to each other and that will ultimately alter the course of their own lives and that of the next generation.

I found this an intriguing novel. At first I really enjoyed it, but then I struggled to understand where it was going, but I did find my way again. I did not find I could visualize the setting or the characters very well, something I like to do when I am reading, but that might be because Afghanistan is so far out of my experience. I felt that the last few chapters were added to bring the reader out of the depression that the subject of the story should instill - it is horrific and appalling - and detracted from the impact of a particular scene at the end of the book, which is where I think the story should have ended. That said I think this is an important story that everyone should read.

Other books by Khaled Hosseini.