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A Thousand Splendid Suns | 
 enlarge | Author: Khaled Hosseini
Publisher: Bloomsbury Publishing PLC
Category: Book
List Price: £11.99
Buy New: £2.94
You Save: £9.05 (75%)
New (44) Used (20) Collectible (1) from £2.94
Rating:  189 reviews
Sales Rank: 426
Media: Paperback
Edition: Export ed
Pages: 384
Shipping Weight (lbs): 1
Dimensions (in): 9.1 x 6 x 1.3
ISBN: 0747582971
EAN: 9780747582977
ASIN: 0747582971
Publication Date: May 22, 2007
Availability: Usually dispatched within 1-2 business days
Condition: Brand New. In stock. Despatched within 24 hours.
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| Customer Reviews: Read 10 more reviews...
 Impressive, poignant and unputdownable April 29, 2008
Helen Simpson (Leeds, England)
21 out of 25 found this review helpful
It's a long time since a book made me feel angry and want to jump into the pages to defend the characters but that's how this novel made me feel. I found it a really gripping read with depth and realism that made me reluctant to put it down.
I confess to knowing very little about Afghanistan and whilst I'm certainly no expert now, I do feel I have much more of a flavour of the country and it's people. It's easy for me to be indignant and say what I would do in certain situations but in reality, and as this novel shows, there are so many factors that go into making decisions that are life changing. Frustrated as I felt at times at the unfairness of things, I can understand why Mariam and Laila went along with the paths that were offered them.
I was genuinely shocked by the way the women and children are treated by some of the characters, oddly enough less by the physical abuse and more of the mental abuse and inequality.
I was impressed that religion doesn't actually play a big part in this book, instead it's an insight into the culture of the country over the last three decades.
haunting, harrowing, compelling January 22, 2008
Diana Pen (Spain)
71 out of 97 found this review helpful
Beautifully written with restraint and understated power. This book moved me by its content - the story of two women living through times of great upheaval in Afghanistan who struggle to retain their dignity while at the mercy of a world controlled by men - and by the language used. Hosseini transmits to us the utter dependance of the women on the whims of the men in their lives be it father, husband or the authorities, and the degradations they suffer at their hands, without resorting to descriptions of gratuitous violence. The very matter-of-factness of his descriptions makes them more effective and moving. I must confess that I wept with rage and despair as I read some of the passages. As a student I visited Afghanistan in 1970 and Hosseini's descriptions brought it all back to me; the heat, the dust, the mountains and the endless plains with the huge sky; the bustling markets and the houses with the blind walls which in this story conceal lives of at times unbearable sadness. The book ends on a cautiously optimistic note as the characters work to build a new and better world in their small sphere of influence. A book to be recommended.
History through the eyes of ordinary people April 18, 2008
Peter Scott (Norfolk)
18 out of 24 found this review helpful
For far too long history has been the story of rulers and revolutions viewed from above. The people appear as statistics if at all. Now we are seeing writers who show us the story from below, through the eyes of the ordinary people who experience and suffer it. The drivers of the events - the politicians, warlords and religious leaders - are now put in their rightful place, in peripheral vision.
This is an enthralling account of the last twenty or so years of Afghanistan. Reading this book brings the names of the high actors such as Najibullah, bin Laden and Karzai into focus and describes the activities of the Soviets, the Taliban and the Mujahideen factions. But they are seen by their effects on a group of people whose lives intertwine. Those lives are blighted, and sometimes ended, by events, but we are left admiring their fortitude and courage and their ability to give and receive love and comfort even in the worst circumstances.
Above all, though, it is about the lives of women during war and in the face of the best and worst that Islam offers to them. We learn what it is like to have no power in the face of brutality and hardship and to have to make heartbreaking compromises.
This is about Afghanistan but it is also a metaphor for the innocents who suffer whenever the horns of the mighty clash together. It could no doubt equally be told about Iraq, Palestine, Bosnia and the Sudan, or indeed countless other areas where we ordinary people are caught in the whirlwind.
This is a book that everyone should read. It is told simply and with great feeling.
Book club pick December 12, 2007
Snappy Witherspoon (I'm not telling)
26 out of 36 found this review helpful
Our book club recently picked three great books: "Fried Green Tomatoes" by Flagg, "Midnight in the Garden of Good And Evil" by Berendt, and this one, "A Thousand Splendid suns" We loved all, but "suns" hit some nerve (the setting and general world conditions now?)and we weren't able to shake it. We've not yet read "Kite" but will take that one up next. Would also recommend that you try Flagg's FRIED GREEN TOMATOES if you haven't already read it.
Cheers!
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