Khaled Hasseini, who came to the U.S in 1980 from Afghanistan, is also the best selling author of The Kite Runner. In his former novel, his focus was on fathers and sons in that country. In his second novel, A Thousand Splendid Suns (2007) he writes of the plight of women there, telling the story of two women, Mariam and Laila both married to Rasheem, a raging, bullying husband. The story is told against the historical backdrop of the Soviet Invasion, the refugee camps in Pakistan and the rise of the Taliban.
At first the characters seemed one-dimensional to me, but after a couple of chapters, I couldn't put the book down. Hasseini weaves the hardships of the daily life in Kabul into an absorbing tale through these two women whose lives are locked into a patriarchal despotism based on custom and law. It extends through 3 decades of anti-Soviet, Jihad, civil war and the tyranny of the Taliban.
Through the daily routines and extreme difficulties facing the women, the author provides keen insight into the resilience of the characters and the country, combining despair with hope. This novel offered some understanding into a country that remains much of a mystery to me, yet continues to be a troubling and frightening problem for the United States.
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