A Thousand Splendid Suns

Hosseini, Khaled. A thousand splendid suns, London : Bloomsbury Publishing, 2007.

This is the author's second novel and the story covers three decades of turmoil in war-stricken Afghanistan and tells the story of two victimised but courageous women.  Mariam, is the poor illegitimate daughter of a housekeeper and a wealthy Afghan businessman, she is married off at the age 15 to an abusive and violent 40 year old cobbler Rasheed.  Laila is 14 and is smart, well-educated, and comfortably raised, who due to tragic circumstances becomes the second wife of Mariam’s husband.  At the heart of the novel is the relationship that develops between Mariam and Laila, against a backdrop of unending war. Readers who lost themselves in The Kite Runner will not want to miss this follow-up.