A Thousand Splendid Suns, written by the Afgan-American writer Khaled Hosseini, published in 2007 by Riverhead books is Hosseini’s second book following the best seller “ The Kite Runner” and just like the former Thousand Splendid Suns too got its fair share of fame. After its publication, the book stayed on the New York Times bestseller list for fifteen weeks and within one week of its publication it had sold more than a million copies. The book’s adaptation rights were sold to Columbia Pictures with a promise to turn it into a motion picture, followed by a theatrical adaptation in 2017 at the American Conservatory Center, San Francisco.
A Thousand Splendid Suns is a book I had been running away from until the day I picked it up. Captivating you from the very first page, this book tells you a story of a woman who has never seen love and of a woman who has lost all her loved ones. Mariam, a young girl of fifteen is married to a man twice her age and is sent to a place where there is even more darkness waiting for her than what she had seen up until now. So what happens when she meets Laila, a girl who has lost all the love she had and the love she did not have, to war? In the midst of a burning country Laila and Mariam find love, as mother and daughter and as friends.
“One could not count the moons that shimmer on her roofs, or the thousand splendid suns that hide behind her walls.”
– Khaleed Hosseini, A Thousand Splendid Suns.
Hosseini has not just written a book, he has written history, he has done magic. Everything from the plot to the characters are written in such perfection that you find yourself fighting between the urge to read the book in one sitting or taking everything in slowly, so that you don’t miss a detail, never forget one. The book takes you on a heart wrenching journey with Mariam and Laila, it talks about what war does, what it destroys. It takes everything away from you and yet leaves you full of hope. It talks about one’s love for their homeland and their fear of losing it. Hosseini’s magic does not end just here, within all of the conflict he manages to bring in topics of domestic violence and empowerment of women. He opens a window into the dirty world of the uneducated, telling us over and over what not knowing enough can do. The line between superstition and religion is blurred in the book, with mention of jins and extremist ideologies of the so called “religious people”.
A Thousand Splendid Suns leaves you speechless and wondering about the world and ourselves, about stories we did not get to know, will never get to know.
Aysha Kulsum is a student pursuing English from Jamia Millia Islamia
Edited by: Rutba Iqbal
Disclaimer: The opinions expressed in this publication are those of the author. They do not purport to reflect the opinions or views of The Jamia Review or its members.
