A Thousand Splendid Suns

Khaled Hosseini has written two books that I have read. 'The Kite Runner' was a heart warming story set around a boy growing up in Afghanistan. A well written, well told story that gave me a very different view of Afghanis and of life there than the one that is normally provided by the media.

I have just finished the second book "A Thousand Splendid Suns". Actually, I finished it very early on Saturday morning on a plane from Darwin to Brisbane.

This book may not have the depth of 'The Kite Runner" but it had a more powerful effect on me.

The story centres around two women. Mariam is an harami, or bastard. This is definitely not a term of endearment. She is caused to marry a man many years her senior when she is 15. It starts out better than you might expect but heads down the reasonably obvious path pretty quickly.

Laila joins the household some years later. The relationship between the two women has a very rocky beginning but grows.

All the while the misery that is recent Afghan politics swims around the household. The Soviets come almost as saviours and go. The mujahadeen arrive as saviours and fall into tribal disarray soon after with terrible results for the population. The Taliban arrive as saviours and, again, soon deliver a continuing disaster for most of the population.

Don't be concerned though that this is a heavy, political book. It is, but it doesn't feel like one. We are taken into the household. We are given an insight into the reality of life. It is tough in parts but by no means without hope and there is plenty of light and love.

I have been told - by someone smarter than me - that the concluding parts could seem a little contrived but I have exercised my right to disagree, just a little.

The characters were able to get under my skin. I felt for Mariam and could empathise with the hard headed decisions of Laila. I can't say that I really understood Rasheed but I could understand some of why he might be as he was. The weakness of Jalil is something with which we are all probably familiar as we are with the bitterness of Nana.

If you read it for no other reason than that you would like a good story then you wont be disappointed. If you want to put a human face to the decisions that refugees actually have to make you will enjoy it more.

And for the young bloke in the nearby seat on the flight from Darwin to Brisbane - that old bloke had tears running down his face because some things in life make you both angry and sad and deserve a tear or two.