A Thousand Splendid Suns

Though I am not an avid book reader, but I opted this since I had heard a lot about this book. Its is really a wonderful piece of work by Khaled Hosseini. The tragic story of the common people of Afghanistan, depicted in the format of fiction. It has been written in a spell-bounding manner. A story of two woman intertwined beautifully. Emotional, heart-wrenching story. Recommended.

Just got the book few hours ago. Courier company made a mistake and so it got delayed for 1 day, but the wait is worth. Nice packaging, Lovely condition of the book. Now desperately waiting to start the journey of "A Thousand Splendid Suns". Coz i have heard that if you loved "The Kite Runner" then you'll love this book much more. :)

P.S. Flipkart.com surely ROX...

It is a story of two Afghani women(Mariam and Laila) to exemplify the status of women in Afghanistan spanning 3 decades --starting from soviet invasion then mujaheddin fight after that Taliban take over and finally US invasion(to find Osama).
The first part of the book starts with introducing a little girl Mariam. Her father is a rich and respected man of Herat(a city in Afghanistan) but her mother was a servant in his home, which led to the pariah of her and her mother. this also entitled her to the tag of harami--a bastard. after some unfortunate she at the age of 15 was married to middle aged man of Kabul. Then the book discribes her story and parallely introduces our second protagonist Laila, the daughter of her neighbor... i should stop here describing the plot because anything further makes the plot discreet.

The primary concer of the author was to portray the condition of Afghani women and to make his point strong he took help of war situation, my only regret after reading the book is is surely is not a mediocre work but it ain't excellent either..i mean if i read a novel which involves a war situation i should get horrifed , u know like it's happening right there another thing of same kind was with charachter introduction, it wasn't supeflous u will get the feel of them but it wasn't like getting under the skin of the charachters(if u are wondering what i mean read some of Somesaut Maugham's woek) anyways book is still likeable and still heartbreaking...

I loved the way author narrates the story he takes u almost deep into the charachter and just when you are getting a feel of charachter baam he flies of the point.It's like taking a fish out of water and just when she is gonna take her last attempt to breath u lower her in water just to take it out again without giving her time to breath. narration is impressive but the only thing that bothers me and this is the same thing that reduced one star was that the events were more like a suspense detective novel scenarios were changing too quickly,

Anyways that's my point of view and i think the author did a pretty good job of conveying his message.

I have already read "The Kite runner', so had high hopes of this book. Simply put my hopes were not let down. This book leads us through the difficulties of Afghan people, esp. women, and you just can't help but feel really bad for the women there.. The speciality of Khaled Hosseini's books are that he explains the character's emotions in detail that we can literally picturise it or empathize with the character. Kudos to Khaled Hosseini for this book and for 'The kite runner'.
On a personal note, I loved 'The Kite runner' more. But Mariam and Laila will stay in your heart for quite some time like Hassan and Amir(of 'The Kite runner').

P.S: This is my first review in Flipkart, thanks Flipkart for your amazing service. And I love your bookmarks. ;)

Mr. Hosseini does a great job of speaking out for a class of people that has no voice of its own. One after another, the facets of life as a woman in a greatly patriarchal and repressive society left me astounded. Afghanistan was in many ways a slowly liberalizing society as recently as the 1970s. This book describes, through a human perspective, how the nation became a veritable hell for its own people after the usurping of power by the Taliban. How the people had to survive with restrictions on the most basic, most mundane aspects of their life.
The innocent and beautiful friendship between the female protagonists, Mariam and Laila, will not fail to leave you touched. In that aspect, for one, this book is quite like its predecessor.