Review: A Thousand Splendid Suns by Khaled Hosseini

A Thousand Splendid Suns begins with the story of Mariam, her struggle to understand her identity as an illegitimate child and her battle between simply enduring a hard life and finding the courage to accept hope and love when life brings her an unexpected but true friend. It's a dark but ultimately redeeming tale.

This is very different from The Kite Runner. I didn't feel that A Thousand Splendid Suns was as intimate or personal, which could have simply been the fact that it was told from third-person point of view rather than first, as The Kite Runner was. But Hosseini does an amazing job painting a vivid picture of the culture and landscape of Afghanistan and a stark representation of the turmoil and upheaval during the last few decades.