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A Thousand Splendid Suns
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Khaled Hosseini
List Price: $25.95
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Product Details
- Author: Khaled Hosseini
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- Binding: Hardcover
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- Dewey Decimal Number: 813.6
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- EAN: 9781594489501
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- ISBN: 1594489505
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- Label: Riverhead
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- Language: English
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- Manufacturer: Riverhead
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- Number of Items: 1
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- Number of Pages: 384
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- Product Group: Book
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- Publication Date: 2007-05-22
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- Publisher: Riverhead
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- Studio: Riverhead
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- Title: A Thousand Splendid Suns
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Avg Customer Rating: 
Product Description: It's difficult to imagine a harder first act to follow than The Kite Runner: a debut novel by an unknown writer about a country many readers knew little about that has gone on to have over four million copies in print worldwide. But when preview copies of Khaled Hosseini's second novel, A Thousand Splendid Suns, started circulating at Amazon.com, readers reacted with a unanimous enthusiasm that few of us could remember seeing before. As special as The Kite Runner was, those readers said, A Thousand Splendid Suns is more so, bringing Hosseini's compassionate storytelling and his sense of personal and national tragedy to a tale of two women that is weighted equally with despair and grave hope. We wanted to spread the word on the book as widely, and as soon, as we could. See below for an exclusive excerpt from A Thousand Splendid Suns and early reviews of the book from some of our top customer reviewers.--The Editors
| An Exclusive Excerpt from A Thousand Splendid Suns |
We have arranged with the publisher to make an exclusive excerpt of A Thousand Splendid Suns available on Amazon.com. Click here to read a scene from the novel. It's not the opening scene, but rather one from a crucial moment later in the book when Mariam, one of the novel's two main characters, steps into a new role.
| Early Buzz from Amazon.com Top Reviewers |
We queried our top 100 customer reviewers as of March 6, 2007, and asked them to read A Thousand Splendid Suns and share their thoughts. We've included these early reviews below in the order they were received. For the sake of space, we've only included a brief excerpt of each reviewer's response, but each review is available for reading in its entirety by clicking the "Read the review" link. Joanna Daneman:  "His style is deceptively simple and clear, the characters drawn deftly and swiftly, his themes elemental and huge. This is a brilliant writer and I look forward to more of his work." Read Joanna Daneman's review
Seth J. Frantzman: "Khaled Hosseini has done it again with 'A Thousand Splendid Sons', presenting a new, dashing and dark tale of two generations of women trapped in a loveless marriage, bracketed by great events." Read Seth J. Frantzman's review
Donald Mitchell: "Khaled Hosseini has succeeded in capturing many important historical and contemporary themes in a way that will make your heart ache again and again. Why will your reaction be so strong? It's because you'll identify closely with the suffering of almost all the characters, a reaction that's very rare to a modern novel." Read Donald Mitchell's review
Lawrance M. Bernabo: "All things considered, following up on a successful first novel is probably harder than coming up with the original effort and Hosseini could have rested on his laurels in the manner of Harper Lee, but as "A Thousand Splendid Suns" amply proves, this native of Kabul has more stories to tell about the land of Afghanistan." Read Lawrance M. Bernabo's review
Amanda Richards: "There are parts of this book that will have grown men surreptitiously blotting the tears that are on the verge of overflowing their ducts, and by the time you get to the middle, you won't be able to put it down. Hosseini's simple but richly descriptive prose makes for an engrossing read, and in my opinion, "A Thousand Splendid Suns" is among the best I have ever read. This is definitely not one to be missed." Read Amanda Richards's review
N. Durham:  "All that being said, "A Thousand Splendid Suns" is a bit more enjoyable than Hosseini's previous "The Kite Runner", and once again he manages to give we readers another glimpse of a world that we know little about but frequently condemn and discard. However, if you were one of the many that for some reason absolutely loved "The Kite Runner", chances are that you'll love this as well." Read N. Durham's review
John Kwok: "Khaled Hosseini's "A Thousand Splendid Suns" is a genuine instant literary classic, and one destined to be remembered as one of 2007's best novels. It should be compared favorably to such legendary Russian novels like "War and Peace" and "Doctor Zhivago"." Read John Kwok's review
Thomas Duff: "Normally I'm more of an action-adventure type reader when it comes to novels and recreational reading. But I was given the chance to read A Thousand Splendid Suns by Khaled Hosseini (author of The Kite Runner), so I decided to try something out of my normal genre. I am *so* glad I did. This is a stunning and moving novel of life and love in Afghanistan over a 30 year period." Read Thomas Duff's review
Charles Ashbacher: "This book manages to simultaneously capture the history of Afghanistan over the last thirty years and how women are treated in conservative Islamic societies.... In many ways it is a sad book, your heart goes out to these two women in their hopeless struggle to have a decent life with a brutal man in an unforgiving, intolerant society." Read Charles Ashbacher's review
W. Boudville:  "Hosseini presents a piognant view into the recent tortured decades of the Afghan experience. From the 1970s, under a king, to the Soviet takeover, to the years of resistance. And then the rise and fall of the Taliban. An American reader will recognise many of the main political events. But to many Americans, Afghanistan and its peoples and religion remain an opaque and troubling mystery." Read W. Boudville's review
Mark Baker: "I tend to read plot heavy books, so this character study was a definite change of pace for me. I found the first half slow going at times, mainly because I knew where the story was going. Once I got into the second half, things really picked up. The ending was very bittersweet. I couldn't think of a better way to end it." Read Mark Baker's review
Grady Harp: "Hosseini takes us behind those walls for forty some years of Afghanistan's bloody history and while he does not spare us any of the descriptions of the terror that continues to besiege that country, he does offer us a story that speaks so tenderly about the fragile beauty of love and devotion and lasting impression people make on people." Read Grady Harp's review
Robert P. Beveridge: "When I was actively reading it, the pages kept turning, and more than once I found myself foregoing food or sleep temporarily to get in just one more chapter. When I had put it down, however, I felt no particular compulsion to pick it back up again. It's a good book, and a relatively well-written one, but it's not a great book. Enjoyable without leaving a lasting impression." Read Robert P. Beveridge's review
B. Marold: "While the events in Afghanistan and the wider world create a familiar framework for the stories of these two women, it is nothing more than a framework. The warp and weft of everyday life, and the interaction of the two women and their close relatives is the heartbeat of the story." Read B. Marold's review
Daniel Jolley: "Khaled Hosseini has written a majestic, sweeping, emotionally powerful story that provides the reader with a most telling window into Afghan society over the past thirty-odd years. It's also a moving story of friendship and sacrifice, giving Western readers a rare glimpse into the suffering and mistreatment of Afghan women that began long before the Taliban came to power." Read Daniel Jolley's review
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Customer Reviews
Will not make you feel good - but will make you feel blessed
I found it to be a heartbreaking book - an eye opening book as well. The fact that the book is set in recent years made it more heartbreaking as well as realistic. It was hard for me to read the parts where Rasheed abused the women. It angered me greatly.
I think the book was quite stark and harsh - yet honest. I'm glad I read it. We, here in the US, know nothing of the sort of things portrayed in the book and it was hard to put myself in that place. It also made me think of my freedom and how there is no one to control me, no one to tell me I must cover myself in a burqua. I find it unimaginable to have to live that way.
I didn't close the book with a "feel-good" air. I closed the book and sighed. I think many would benefit from reading the book - it lets you know that there is very much more to this world than yourself and that you should count your blessings every day. It also lets you know that your life can change in an instant and that the world you think you should have isn't necessarily the world you'll get.
-Gatlianne
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Not compelling
Not nearly as compelling as the Kite Runner and borders almost on parody. Villains are even more cartoonish and one-dimensional than in the Kite Runner. Dialogue and descriptions are still clunky. Also, when taken together with the Kite Runner, it is clear that Hosseini is pushing a pro-American, anti-Islamic political agenda.
Why does Hosseini pepper his dialog with foreign language (Persian, Pashto, Arabic, Urdu etc.) and then translate it into English immediately within the same sentence? ("Mariam said bas, stop it.") It's not like these characters are supposed to be speaking English in real life. Very very annoying.
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Better than Kite Runner
Khaled Hosseini's second novel proves that he is here to stay. I thought Suns was even better than Kite Runner. A Thousand Splendid Suns was a very well-written, engrossing, page turner which provides the reader a nice glimpse of the history and culture of Afganistan. Overall, Hosseini has a big formula for both writing and reading success.
My problem with the Kite Runner was that I thought the first third of the novel was SUPERB and the last two-thirds were a let-down. Here again, with A Thousand Splendid Suns, there is a split. The first three-quarters, FANTASTIC, the last quarter, just so-so. For me the book could have ended once Rasheed got his come-uppance. That was all I was really waiting for.
The story revolves around the characters of two women: Mariam and Laila, their childhoods and their ultimate and unlikely shared marriage to the bully Rasheed. The women's characters, and the characters of the men they loved (Mariam's father and for Laila, Tariq) were very well-developed. Husband, Rasheed's character, was not developed at all. I guess it was no matter since we obviously were not supposed to like him anyway. It was a story of lost and found love, fear, and the struggle for survival amid a war-torn, confusing society where it seems anything oppressive, goes. My favorite part was the quiet but airtight bond that developed between Mariam and Laila in the face of calamity.
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Informative look at life for women in Afghanistan's current history
All I can say is wow. What the two women went through in this book is incredible, and to remain so strong through it all.
I knew that life was not pleasant for women in previous years in Afghanistan, but the cruelty of what they went through was just mind altering. Through the story of Miriam and Laila, we see the injustices that women suffered under the Taliban regime. All of it was with the "approval" of the government. Beating and torchering women behind closed doors was a fact of life for many, and how Miriam and Laila stayed so strong through it all gives real hope of endurance in rough times. I guess the best way to describe it is they just had to survive and did what they could to accomplish this day by day.
You will not regret picking this one up. At times it can be a raw and brutal account of punishments that women went through, but the story teaches a lesson of endurance during hard times.
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A thousand splendid minutes
I was with my Mom when she bought this book. The day after she bought it she said, "I read three pages and then decided I don't have time to read." After finishing this book in 36 hours, I'm determined to force my Mom to read the rest. It's always shockingly beautiful when a male author can sneak inside the minds of women and convey their emotions, feelings, joys and revulsion in a given situation. Though this sounds "un-politically correct" in this day and age, it's equally surprising when the minds of the female characters can connect to the mind of their male author. I would say that I felt "empathy" towards these women. But empathy implies that my experiences drawn on those similar to theirs and this couldn't be further than the truth. Furthermore, the explanation for the reasons behind the twisting, turning lives of Laila and Mariam wouldn't be complete without the supporting characters whose scary, nauseating, beautiful traits intertwine with their lives. They are all multidimensional. So much so that I felt that if I closed my eyes and reached out my hand, it would intertwine with theirs or it would land with a vicious "smack" on a deserving face. Buy this book, take a deep breath and don't plan on putting down for the next two days.
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