Khaled Hosseini’s second novel arrives with considerable expectations attached to it, given the global success of The Kite Runner, and for the most part it meets them. A Thousand Splendid Suns tells the story of two Afghan women whose lives become entwined across decades of violence and political upheaval, and it is, by any measure, a serious and affecting piece of work.
The novel opens with Mariam, an illegitimate child from Herat, who is married off at fifteen to Rasheed, a Kabul shoemaker considerably older than herself. Hosseini is patient in establishing her world, her loneliness, and the particular cruelties of her situation before the larger historical forces of the book begin to press in. Years later, a young neighbour named Laila loses her family to a rocket strike and finds herself, through grim circumstance, sharing Mariam’s home and Rasheed’s roof. What develops between the two women is the emotional core of the novel, a bond that the Sunday Times described as deeply moving, and it is. Hosseini earns the feeling rather than simply asking the reader to supply it.
The book covers roughly thirty years of Afghan history, from the Soviet invasion through the civil war and into the Taliban period, and critics have noted that Hosseini handles this material with both clarity and restraint. The Daily Telegraph called it a suspenseful epic, which is fair. The historical detail never overwhelms the human story, though at times the plot mechanics feel a little engineered, with coincidences and reversals arriving on schedule. The Financial Times called it a triumph, and while that may be slightly generous, the novel’s ambitions are largely realised.
Where the book is least resistible is in its portrayal of what women endure under successive regimes, each one finding new ways to diminish and control. Hosseini does not sensationalise this. He presents it plainly, which makes it harder to look away. The Mail on Sunday’s single word, heartbreaking, is not an exaggeration. There are passages here that stay with you.
A Thousand Splendid Suns is not a flawless novel, but it is a generous and humane one. Hosseini clearly cares deeply about his characters and his country, and that care is visible on every page. It deserves its wide readership.
