A Thousand Splendid Suns

View other editions of A Thousand Splendid Suns.
View books by Khaled Hosseini.

Not the worst book I've read - Rated
This is not the worst book I've read but it's close to it. The two female leads, Mariam and Laila, are cardboard cutouts and interchangeable, nothing to distinguish one from the other. It will be left to the scriptwriters to flesh them out. The story is clearly written with a film in mind, with mindless violent scenes repeated monotonously throughout. I skipped page after page after page without losing one pulse of the plot.

Even better than last - Rated
Have just finished this book and feel so sad at leaving these people. The characters were so real and the situations so horrific that i wanted to keep them beside me all the time. Please read this book its absolutely stunning, what more can i say.

The Purest Sorrow - Rated
This book is heartwrenchingly sorrowful. The empathy evoked by the suffering and unfair cruelty experienced by the main female characters has made me cry four times. I never cry for books and films, but this story touched a raw emotion. Kudos to Hosseini for his vivid and powerful depictions of the daily battles encountered by the brave women of Afghanistan and its neighbouring Muslim countries. The patriarchal societies in which these women are born gives them an instanteous disadvantage in the race of life. This book made me realise how fortunate and grateful i should be for the countless blessings bestowed upon me. Whilst, that may seem like a somewhat selfish outcome of reading the book, one of the roles of literature should be to foster self-betterment, and the souless plight of Mariam and Laila's fostered this for me. This book is easy to read, and the story draws you in. Highly recommended!

educational more than entertaining - Rated
Although it was easy to read and the story was well-told I did feel that its purpose was more to teach me than to entertain me, and that always irks me slightly. The characters are a bit too black and white for their traumatic tale to be really moving. I felt a bit the same about The Kite Runner, as I recall.

An intense and harrowing read - Rated
Two women brought together in marriage to the same man unite against the injustices of the world that Afghanistan was, where men could get away with so much wickedness. Although the details of their neverending misery made this story such an intense and harrowing read, yet I could not put it down, being drawn readily albeit with trepidation from one page to the next. The author is clearly a master storyteller. For a few weeks after reading this book, I could not bear to read another. Would definitely recommend it.