Written by the author of The Kite Runner, Khaled Hosseini, The Thousand Splendid Suns novel is an amazing novel, able to capture millions of hearts. I must say Hosseini has successfully created another masterpiece that portrays the hardship of two Afghani young girls. The Thousand Splendid Sun novel is stuffed with an incredibly emotional, heart-wrenching story. Moreover, this novel portrays the progression of life in Afghanistan from the Soviet conquer. What makes the story more enthralling is the pattern of the writing that keeps us engaged and interested.
Talking about the characters, they were great, especially protagonists; Mariam and Laila. Besides, Hosseini has included more male characters like Jalil, Rasheed, Tariq, and Hakim to portray different personalities regarding the way how males treat females. On one side Hosseini has created characters like Hakim and Tariq who respect females and have a high position in their eyes, whereas, characters like Jalil and Rasheed are the villains of the society suppressing females. Beginning with the plot we can see 4 parts of the story; story of Mariam before marriage, story of Laila before marriage, story of the girls together with their common husband Rasheed, and story of Laila with her beloved Tariq.
Beginning with the story, Mariam is an illegitimate daughter of Jalil who lives with his 3 other wives and doesn’t accept them (Mariam and her mother) to live with him. Hence, Mariam’s mother commits suicide and Mariam just being 15 years old young girl is forced to marry Rasheed who is 30 years elder than her and brutally abuses her physically. Where on the other side of the story, Laila is the daughter of Hakim (advocate for women’s equality) who wants his daughter to be well literate and stand strong on her own. Laila is in love with Tariq and both make love passionately for the first time before Tariq flees to other city to skip war. After some days, Laila’s family too decides to flee the city but unfortunately, everyone is killed on rocket attack that landed on their house. However, Laila survives and is taken care of by Mariama and Rasheed. Laila soon receives a message regarding the death of Tariq. Laila also finds herself pregnant with Tariq’s child. Hence she agrees to marry Rasheed on his condition that is only going to let her stay at his house if she marries him.
Now as Laila gives birth to a girl child (Aziza), she too starts getting abused, beaten by Rasheed. Hence, both Mariam and Laila start taking care of each other. After few years Laila finally gives birth to a son, as a consequence Rasheed throws Aziza in orphanage. Then, one day Laila come across Tariq who was said to be dead but was just a dirty lie prepared by Rashid to marry her. That day, they spend their afternoon together but Rasheed figures it out and hence brutally beats Laila. To protect Laila, Mariam kills Rasheed and clears the way for Laila and Tariq to live a happy life. Afterward, Tariq and Laila get married and wish for a girl whom they will name Mariam in honor of what Mariam did for them.
Hence coming up with a conclusion, The Thousand Splendid Suns book is a page-turner book but consists of extreme heart –wrenching, difficult scenarios that everybody might not be able to get through. Overall, it is a must-read book by Khaled Hosseini that has great value and might be an eye-opening experience for readers. So if you want to give it a try, perform The Thousand Splendid Suns pdf download from the link mentioned below;
