One Thousand Splendid Suns

A moving but intensly harrowing story of love, cruelty and how the human spirit can survive a continuation of cruel regimes. Told from the viewpoint of the two women who are the main characters of the story. Also it’s interesting to have an insight as a westerner, into the country of Afghanistan which most of us have very little knowledge of. I, for one, was surprised in Mariams description of her second house, that they had electricity. I assumed the houses were just stone huts. As the Taliban took over, it reinforces our impressions of the fanatical nature of that government.
Some characteristics are the same from country to country – we too have battered wives, but unlike Mariam and Laila, there is help available in our country – not an option for those two. I couldn’t reconcile Mariams acceptance of her fate throughout the book, but what else could she have done? Her realisation of the only way to help Laila by accepting death also was hard to understand – because we have such an easy life compared to theirs.
When Mariam and Laila started to dig the well in the backyard, I really thought (because I read thrillers) they were planning to kill Rasheed and bury him in the garden – who could be bothered to keep burying the TV and unearthing it all the time? I suppose they took for granted they had to do what they had to do.
Thank goodness the ending was as happy as it could be in that war-torn country.
An intense story depicting the strength of the human spirit and certainly a book well worth reading – but I found it very harrowing and real – almost non-fictional, as we’d followed the actions in Afghanistan during the hunt for Bin Laden. I had to read a thriller afterwards with famililar twists and plots to take my mind away from the anguish and unjustice that some people have to live amidst.

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