a Thousand Splendid Suns

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A Thousand Splendid Suns Written by: Khaled Hosseini Khaled Hosseini, published The Kite Runner in 2003 to great acclaim, but who knew that four years later he would have an even better historical novel published “A Thousand Splendid Suns”. The history of Afghanistan is marked by death and loss and unbelievable grief. And, yet, Laila (one of the 2 heroines) sees that people find a way to survive, to go on. Ultimately, this is more than a story of survival in the face of what seems to be insurmountable odds. It is a story of the indomitable spirit of a people and individuals seen through the eyes of two resilient women. A Thousand Splendid Suns is a must read for those who wish to understand the modern history (1964 - 2003) of Afghanistan, which is told eloquently through the eyes of Laila and Mariam (our second heroine). Life is an unending search for love, family, home, acceptance, a healthy society, and a promising future. You can go home again, even if "home" has evolved and been transformed. As home is transformed one adapts and maintains what one can of tradition. The dying words of Laila's father, killed by a bomb while in the seeming safety of their home, quote lines from Saib-e-Tabrizi in praise of Kabul: "One could not count the moons that shimmer on her roofs, or the thousand splendid suns that hide behind her walls." The stories of Mariam and Laila begin independent of one another even as they live a few doors apart in Kabul. When a bomb falls on Laila's home, killing her parents, she is taken in by Mariam and her husband Rasheed, one of the most evil incarnate characters in the modern novel. Mariam was married to him when she was fifteen. Laila is nearly the same age, and Rasheed insists they marry. Laila agrees because she is alone, unwed and secretly pregnant with another man’s baby . It is difficult to accept that some of what Westerners
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