A Thousand Splendid Suns - Review, Significance, Summary and More..

About:

A Thousand Splendid Suns is a 2007 novel by Afgan-American author Khalid Hosseini. It is his second, following his bestselling 2003 debut, The Kite Runner. Hosseini has remarked that he regards the novel as a "mother-daughter story" in contrast to The Kite Runner, which he considers a "father-son story".

Summary:

This book is set in Afganistan from the early 1960s to the early 2000s. Mariam, a young girl in the 1960s, grows up outside Herat, a small city in Afganistan. Mariam has complicated feelings about her parents: She lives with her spiteful and stubborn mother, Nana; while her father Jalil, a successful businessman, visits Mariam - his only illegitimate child - once a week. Mariam resents her limited place in Jalil's life; she wants to live with him, his 3 wives and her half-siblings in Herat. Mariam walks Herat and finds Jalil's house but he doesn't let her in, so she sleeps on the street. The next Morning, Jalil's chauffeur drives Mariam home where she finds that her mother has committed suicide.

                                    

Mariam is taken to Jalil's home after her mother's funeral and forced to marry Rasheed, a widowed shoemaker in Kabul. At first, Rasheed treats Mariam decently but after multiple miscarriages, he abused her Physically and Verbally.

Growing up down the street with Rasheed and Mariam is Laila, a young, intelligent girl from a loving family. However, the Afghani war against Soviets disrupts and a few years later, the war reached Kabul and bombs fall on the city regularly. A few days later, Laila's parents decide to leave Afganistan, but a rocket hits their house, killing Laila's parents and wounding her.

Rasheed and Mariam nurse Laila back to health and after she recovers, a strange, Abdul Sharif brings her news that Tariq has died. Devastated and realizing she's pregnant with Tariq's child, Laila agrees to marry Rasheed. A few years later, Laila gives birth to a son, Zalmai. Then one afternoon, after years of abuse and sadness. Laila is shocked to see a man standing at her front door: Tariq.

                                           

 Tariq and Laila spend the afternoon together while Rasheed is at work. Laila and Mariam realize that Rasheed hired Abdul Sharif to tell Laila about Tariq's untrue demise so she wouldn't run away. When Rasheed finds out that Tariq comes home, he brutally beats Laila. With a shovel, Mariam Kills Rasheed. The next day, Mariam turns herself over to the Taliban in an effort to clear the way for Laila to find sanctuary for herself and her children in Pakistan with Tariq.

In Pakistan, Tariq and Laila marry and finally begin the life they dreamed of so many years ago. With time, both of Laila's children warm to Tariq and they enjoy their new life. But in September 2001, they enjoy their new life and their happiness is overshadowed by news that the United States has attacked Afghanistan. Following the US invasion, the condition of Kabul improves, and Laila and Tariq decide to move back to Kabul. They stop at Herat in between and visits Mariam old home and is able to come to terms with her grief over Mariam's execution. Laila and Tariq build a new life in Kabul: Laila becomes a school teacher at the orphanage where Aziza once lived. And when Laila become pregnant, she decides that if she has a girl, she'll name her Mariam.