"A Thousand Splendid Suns" by Khaled Hosseini

Hosseini's epic tale follows the life of an Afghan family through 30 years of turbulent history and several generations. The reader experiences the daily lives of each of the participants largely through the eyes of the much abused and maligned women.

One major thread follows the life of Mariam, the illegitimate daughter of a wealthy owner of a movie theater in a town several hours outside of Kabul and her eventual forced betrothal as the second wife of a coarse and abusive cobbler in Kabul.

A neighboring family in Kabul's tragic life and death experiences are also chronicled as they fight to educate their daughter in a war-torn, often Taliban controlled Kabul. Freedoms that were even taken for granted in Afghanistan in the 1970s became forbidden under fundamentalist regimes.

The subjugation of women, however, has been a constant part of the Afghan social context throughout and is only in the last few years beginning to change. Hosseini's tale reminds those of us in the west of the freedoms and relative safety and comfort that we enjoy.

Hosseini has such a powerful command of language-- descriptive, sweeping and poetic all without being the least bit maudlin or overly dramatic in terms of the horrors he describes. This is a story told in a caring, but dispassionate way. The reader knows where the author stands on women's rights in Afghanistan, factional warfare, and many other topics, but he makes most of his characters, even the unsympathetic ones, multidimensional so that one can always understand where the protagonists in the book are coming from.

This book, despite the harshness and cruelty contained on many of its pages, was difficult to put down. I cared about what happened to many of the main characters and I longed for a little good to brighten the almost unremitting bad outcomes. The book's ending documents just enough positive change to feel good that the story was ending on a hopeful note.

Liz Nichols
www.mybookwise.com/worldwords

This book is available at a discount by joining the Bookwise associate or preferred customer program at my website. The referral ID is worldwords.

About Me

After 32 years as a public library administrator I retired early to begin an entrepreneurial career.

I've tried to keep my hand in the literary world by writing informational e-books in the areas of Internet Marketing, Investment Real Estate and creating gift baskets.

I also own an online bookstore site you are welcome to tour. See http://www.mybookwise.com/worldwords.

I continue to substitute at the Childrens Room desk at the Iowa City Public Library and read at least a book a week on a variety of fiction and non-fiction genres and topics.

This blog will largely be a journal of my reading picks and pans and a discussion of what you need to do to successfully run your own bookstore online.

Liz Nichols
www.mybookwise.com/worldwords
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