A Thousand Splendid Suns

"One could not count the moons that shimmer on her roofs, or the thousand splendid suns that hide behind her walls"

People have been telling me to read Khaled Hosseini's 'A Thousand Splendid Suns' for

years but it wasn't until recently, when I saw it staring at me from my crowded shelves of unread books, that I decided it was finally time to pick it up and start reading. 

This is the kind of book that it's virtually impossible to put down, and so you rush through the first pages until, as the end approaches, you suddenly realise that you don't want it to finish and so slow down as much as possible to take in the final 20 or so pages. 

This was such a touching book, although Hosseini does make you feel a multitude of different emotions as you read: from horror and despair, to disbelief and at some moments disgust. And then only pages later you are heartened, hopeful, and at times even joyous. 
But is this book better than The Kite Runner? Honestly, I'm not sure it is, and of course this is purely a matter of opinion and every reader will think differently, but for me there was just something more about The Kite Runner that had me thinking about it for days after I read the final page. In contrast, only days after finishing A Thousand Splendid Suns, the story is almost (almost) gone from my mind. But I did really enjoy it while I was reading it, and it's definitely a book that is difficult to put down. Also I'm not sure anyone needs to decide which book is better; they're both now favourites of mine, joining many other books which it would be so difficult to rank... basically what John Green said when asked what his favourite book was - "you want just one??!"
Hosseini really does have a way with words and there were so many 'quotable' sentences. The characters were great and I loved that the female characters ended up taking control of their own destinies, rather than waiting for men to sort everything out for them. (Hosseini even says that "a society has no chance of success if its women are uneducated" - this quote makes me happy, and ironically, especially since it's written by a man). 
One of the great things about Hosseini's books is that they offer westerners an insight into Afghan society. I often feel bad at how little I know about the situation in the east with multiple wars that seem to have been taking place forever. It's even difficult to connect with the areas when disasters such as bombings are shown on the news, and so books like this will always be needed to remind us of all the atrocities that are taking place in the eastern world, and the fact that those events are just as bad there as they would be if bombings took place here. We just hear far less about it. 
There is even some much needed romance in Hosseini's book, in the form of Tariq. Although he isn't present for much of the story, you do get the feeling that he is always there in thought, and he gets to say one of the most beautiful and wonderfully soppy lines in the book: "I will follow you to the ends of the world" -- I may or may not have let out a very long (and very loud) "awwwwwwwh" at this point...

There are **SPOILERS** from this point on...

“Miriam wished for so much in those final moments. Yet as she closed her eyes, it was not regret any longer but a sensation of abundant peace that washed over her. She thought of her entry into this world, the harami child of a lowly villager, an unintended thing, a pitiable, regrettable accident. A weed. And yet she was leaving the world as a woman who had loved and been loved back. She was leaving it as a friend, a companion, a guardian. A mother. A person of consequence at last. No. It was not so bad, Miriam thought, that she should die this way. Not so bad. This was a legitimate end to a life of illegitimate beginnings.”

This quote is so beautifully written and is a perfect example of the overriding message of love presented throughout the book as a conquerer of everything, even the opinions of society. For me it also reminds me of what Dr Wayne Dyer - I love this man, he's so great :) - repeats again and again: that material objects are absolutely nothing, after all when we die we can't take any 'stuff' with us, and the love you give to all those around you is everything. Miriam really was a great character and I'm not quite sure I can forgive Hosseini for killing her, although I guess he did kind of make up for it, if only a little, with Laila's pregnancy at the end. I like that he left it up to the reader to decide the gender of her baby, and I'd be willing to bet most people who read the book like to think she has a girl. 

The last sentence of the book was beautiful and finished off the novel in a way that leaves the reader satisfied, rather than annoyed at the lack of a decent ending. So often the ending of books can be wrong (I'm still annoyed about 'Before I go to Sleep', ughh) but this one was just right and Hoseini's tone remained the same until the very end.

I'm definitely looking forward to reading his next book 'And the Mountains Echoed' at some point in the near future and if his first two books are anything to go by, it'll be absolutely amazing! 9/10.