Review of "A Thousand Splendid Suns"

Book Title - A Thousand Splendid Suns

Author - Khaled Hosseini

Publisher - Bloomsbury www.bloomsbury.com

Pages - 419

I bought this book while travelling back to Mumbai from Bali in June this year. The cover picture and all the nice reviews are what attracted me to pick this one out of all the other bestsellers at the bookstore. Little did I know that this book would change the way I thought about life and people in general and that while reading it I would be thankful that I have a blessed life!

The story revolves around Mariam, a teenager who is married to Rasheed. Throughout the story we are shown glimpses of her life – past and present. As time goes by, we see Mariam and Laila, a local teenager developing ties such as the one between mother and daughter. And then all hell breaks loose when the Taliban takes over. Lives are lost, there is fear in the air, starvation occurs and relationships get strained, but in all of this the lines talk about hope; pure and simple hope that lives in the hearts of Mariam and Laila forever. They find courage in adversity, happiness in little things around them and strength from their memories.

To say the least, Khaled Hosseini has written this book so well that I actually cried when Mariam shed tears and I laughed when she was happy. The language he has used is simple and yet the words have been woven to form images that recreate images of people and places just like they were imagined by him. Read or not to read? Well! You are losing out on a gripping tale created by a master story teller if you miss this one!