A Thousand Splendid Suns

A Thousand Splendid Suns by Khaled Hosseini

Miriam grew up in an isolated shack in Herat, Afghanistan. As the Harami, or bastard child, of a wealthy businessman, she and her mother were shunned. Hidden in clearing accessible only by a footpath in their tiny home of sun-dried bricks reinforced with mud and straw. For fourteen years, this was all she knew. She could view the town below, but had never been amongst it's people or modern wonders.

Her father did not forget her entirely. He provided food and essentials for their existence, and visited Miriam every Thursday. Left for the rest of the week with her depressed mother, her only other contacts were a teacher and one other friend of her mother. She is invited one day to the town, and attempts to see her father, but she is told he is not home. His other 3 wives and 10 children ignore her as she begs to see him, and sleeps on the steps of his home. When she finally realizes she is unwanted, she agrees for her father's driver to take her home. But when she arrives home, her mother has hung herself, so she is taken back to the home of her father.

She is not there long when it is decided that she will be married to a businessman in Kabul. Rasheed was kind at first, but after she loses their first child, his true nature is revealed. He is cold-hearted, and cruel. Miriam suffers endless humiliation and physical abuse at his hands, until Laila enters their lives.

Laila was raised by her father, a teacher, as a free woman. Her parents were more modern, women did not have to wear the burka to cover, and girls were encouraged to get an education.

When the soviets declare war, and her two older bothers are killed, her mother enters a deep depression. Laila and her father live on, learning to cope with changes. When the soviets are defeated, the people assume things will improve, but things go from bad to worse as the taliban take over.

Girls can still go to school, at the risk of being raped or killed on the way there. It becomes almost impossible to leave the house. Laila's childhood friend Tariq protects her as best he can. Laila eventually drops out of school, and realizes at age 15 that she is in love with Tariq. Not long after this becomes obvious to them both, Tariq's family decides to leave Kabul, and seek the potential safety of a refugee camp.

Laila and Tariq profess their love for each other, hoping to be reunited one day. He leaves and a few weeks later, Laila's home is bombed, just as the family was gathering their things to finally leave kabul. Her parents are killed, and she was rescued from the rubble by none other that Rasheed, the cruel husband of Miriam.

Rasheed offers Laila marriage and safety in his home, as is his right to have more than one wife, and she agrees, realizing she has no other option at this point.

Miriam is angry and resentful, though enjoys not being beaten as Rasheed tries to make a good impression on Laila. He cannot surpress his true nature however, and Miriam changes her feelings for Laila when Laila comes to her defense while being beaten by Rasheed.

Laila and Miriam become as close as sisters, doing the best they can to get by in a terrible situation. Prisoners in their own home, they bond as they raise Laila's two children together. Droughts bring hunger, and Rasheed forces Laila to give her daughter to the orphanage. Not long after this, something in Miriam snaps, and one fateful night, she takes things into her own hands and life changes for Miriam and Laila forever.

I did not read the counterpart of this story, The Kite Runner, which describes the life of a man in Afghanistan, but I am told you don't have to in order to understand this book. However, after reading this one, I do want to read The Kite Runner.

The way women are treated in Afghanistan is not news to us in the West, but it is eye-opening to read this personal account of it. Though this book is fiction, it is easy to see how this could be the life of any woman in that place and time. The author's ability to tell the story so eloquently, captures you at once. I found I was unable to put the book down once I started it. My only criticism is that it would be nice if a glossary were available, or footnotes, in order to understand the Farsi words (though, the author did his best to repeat the meaning of words spoken, "Khosh shodi? Happy now?") It would have made the dialogue more natural, and explained many of the words that were not "repeated" such as halwa.

Yes, it is a sad story, and the friend who loaned this book to me told it made her cry. I tend to procrastinate opening a book that I know will be heart-breakingly sad. However, sad though it is, it is a story that should be told and heard, but everyone who values freedom.