Mariam is only fifteen when she is sent to Kabul to marry the troubled and bitter Rasheed, who is thirty years her senior. Nearly two decades later, tragedy strikes fifteen-year-old Laila, who must leave her home and join Mariam's unhappy household. With the passing of time comes Taliban rule over Afghanistan, the streets of Kabul loud with the sound of gunfire and bombs. A Thousand Splendid Suns is an unforgettable portrait of a wounded country and a deeply moving story of family and friendship.

Review: In writing both The Kite Runner and A Thousand Splendid Suns, Hosseini has opened my eyes to the wounded land that is Afghanistan and a people who have rarely known peace. A Thousand Splendid Suns is an important novel: it opens our eyes to the warring in Afghanistan in a way, perhaps, that websites and news articles cannot.

The story is seen through the eyes of Mariam and Laila. Mariam's tale begins with her bitter and resentful mother; outcast from the rest of society after an affair with a wealthy, married man. Mariam is Nana's constant reminder of a mistake she made and also of the cruel injustice that revolves around women and their treatment in a male-orientated society. Mariam longs to be with her father, Jalil (a wealthy businessman) but a fateful trip to his home turns her world into a bleak haze of loss and ruin. At an age too young to comprehend, she is forced to move to Kabul with a man thirty years her senior: a man who fills her new existence with savagery and terror.

 Lalia grows up in a settled family; two brothers, a well-loved and strong mother and a doting father: a far cry from Mariam's upbringing. However, with the communist rule heavily under threat, Lalia's brothers go to war and their deaths change her household forever. It is only her friendship with Tariq that lights her way through the dark that descends upon her family. Through the years, battles between local warlords ensue and the city of Kabul becomes a warzone. As many of the residents leave, a shocking event occurs, which leaves Lalia homeless and orphaned. She takes up shelter with the deplorable Rasheed (Mariam's husband) as his second wife and also becomes victim to his moods and beatings.

With the rise of the Taliban coursing through Afghanistan and Kabul itself, the story builds into a frenzied climax. Mariam, Lalia and her children fight against the odds to not only survive this new enemy but also the man in their lives whose iron fist could not only end their love for each other, but the lives as well.

A Thousand Splendid Suns is a masterpiece in many ways; the author's skill has progressed tenfold since penning The Kite Runner. Hosseini has the power to evocate a land and time with beautiful precision and he can tempt a tear from your eye with the flick of a sentence or the moulding of a closing statement. You cannot help become absorbed in the lives of these two women as we see them rise from infancy to adulthood.

However,  they are not alone. A host of wonderfully crafted characters add to the novel's frame. My heart went out to Lalia's father, Babi, an educated man caught between wanting to fall apart after losing his sons and seeing his wife draw in on herself and yet having to be strong for his beautiful daughter. The greatest character of all, though, must be Kabul itself: a city which undergoes such change and destruction that it seems almost impossible to think of it as still standing and hospitable. Through the endless dust and chatter of its people your senses are bombarded with the destruction and horror that shall always be chiselled within the desert land's foundations.

This bookhas much in common with The Kite Runner. Both are set in Kabul; the cinema features strongly; as does the orphanage; the differences between the rich and the poor; the effect of communism and the Taliban upon their lives and landscape. None of this is a criticism but rather an observation of what must have been important not only in Hosseini's life and that of his family, but also the people in Kabul. The story reminded me somewhat of The Red Tent by Anita Diamant; an excellent novel set in Israel which tells the story of Jacob's wives and their struggle in a land dominated by men.

Above all Hosseini has stated that 'story' is the most important part of this novel. What I took from it though, was the incredible plight that not only the women but also the men in Kabul and Afghanistan have, and are still, going through. I cannot help but think back to 9/11 and the war on Iraq and Terrorism that ensued after the Taliban left their mark on the world forevermore. I cannot help but think of Tony Blair's rather ignorant words when he said that Terrorism was 'the new evil in our world today'. I cannot help but think of the decades of struggle that has gone on in Afghanistan since 1979 and perhaps before, with the introduction of the Soviets and the involvement of America and weep at the innocent people (like Lalia and Mariam) that are abused, manipulated and caught between a cross-fire of religion, ownership, conflict and power.

A Thousand Splendid Suns is a wonderful story which I shall never forget.

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2008-05-01