A Thousand Splendid Suns

The eagerly anticipated second novel from the author of the international bestseller, The Kite Runner

Poor, uneducated Mariam is terrified and only fifteen years old when she is shipped off to Kabul to marry a troubled man thirty years her senior. Nearly two decades later, pretty fifteen-year-old Laila finds herself in the same situation when her intellectual parents are killed by a stray Mujahideen bomb. Forced to forget the passionate love of her life, a boy she’s known since childhood, Laila has no choice but to join that same loveless household with shy Mariam and the bitter husband they now share. In time, however, orphaned Laila and childless Mariam form a friendship that makes them both sisters and mother and daughter to one another. When children are born into this household, the situation gets worse and worse—from shootings and bombings on the street, to physical abuse and starvation at home—and the women are put to phenomenal tests of endurance and strength. In scene after suspenseful scene, Hosseini shows us just how a woman’s love for her family can motivate her to overcome the most daunting obstacles, can move her to shocking and heroic acts of self-sacrifice. In the end, we see, it is love — or even love’s memory—that is often the key to survival.

A Thousand Splendid Suns is the heartbreaking story of an unforgiving history, an unlikely friendship, and an indestructible love; it is a novel that lives on in the mind long after the last page.

Praise for A Thousand Splendid Suns

‘A beautifully crafted and disturbing story of two women victims of the wrath of men.  As unforgettable as The Kite Runner, this novel places us in Afghanistan with an open heart.’ —Isabel Allende

'I loved this book—I couldn't put it down and read it in one sitting. It is incredibly moving and a real insight into the madness and suffering of Afghanistan—in particular its women.' —Fiona Bruce

'Hosseini's proves his credentials as a superstar storyteller. This follow up to The Kite Runner will have fans rampaging into book shops desperate for their copy. Yet again he weaves a masterful story around the lives of two extraordinary and compelling characters brought together in adversity. More importantly he manages to lift the veil on the lives of three generations of women buried alive under their burkas and in doing so confirms them as the greatest  victims of Afghanistan's decades of strife. No one reading this book can fail to be captivated and appalled by a story that although labelled fiction is to this day and to our eternal shame, all too real.' —Mariella Frostrup