A THOUSAND SPLENDID SUNS BY KHALED HOSSEINI
Author: KHALED HOSSEINI 🟣 Fiction 🟣 Published: May 22nd, 2007 🟣 My Rating: ⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐!
Review Date: Apr. 14th, 2023
This heart-wrenching tale is a triumphant love letter to all women everywhere.
I couldn't read this book fast enough and yet I whole heartly didn't want it to end. The story of Mariam and Laila had me so enthralled, I had to continue it by listening to the audiobook while my family and I drove out to New Braunfels, Texas for the Easter break. I even got my mother into it and we cried together as we listened to the bittersweet end on our drive back home.
Two Afghani women form an unbreakable bond that will remind you of the beauty and strength we find in the darkest of times.
Mariam is the illegitimate child of a businessman who is married off to 40-something Rasheed when she was 15-years-old and made to obey her husband during a time in the late 1970s and 1980s when women experienced more freedoms in Afghanistan because of Soviet rule. Mariam cannot carry a pregnancy to term, which frustrates Rasheed and he grows cold and hostile towards Mariam. The POV changes to Laila. Once the warlords battle to take a foothold on Afghanistan, 14-year-old Laila's crush and onetime lover, Tariq, flees to Pakistan after failing to convince her to marry him and flee along with him. A rocket kills Laila's parents while her family is preparing to flee. Middle-aged Rasheed saves Laila from the rubble. Mariam, now an adult, helps her heal from her injuries. Rasheed's motives are clear to Mariam; he intends to marry the 15-year-old Laila. After a stranger informs Laila that the love of her life has died, she succumbs to Rasheed's desires and marries him. As Mariam and Laila's home becomes a more hostile and violent place, so does Afghanistan for women and other minorities. Mariam and Laila simultaneously develop an unshakable sisterhood and mother-daughter bond as they navigate their lives through times of disappointment and hope. The ending alone makes this book a worthwhile read.
Challenges:
Book 29 out of 100 in 2023!
2023 BeatTheBacklist - "POV Character is Under 18"
2023 Popsugar - "A Book About a Family"
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