malalai khan

“Learn this now and learn it well. Like a compass facing north, a man’s accusing finger always finds a woman. Always. You remember that, Mariam.”

This book destroyed me.

A Thousand Splendid Suns is a war-fiction novel written by the Afghan-American author, Khaled Hosseini.

The story revolves around two Afghan women with a generation gap in age. It starts off with Mariam, who is born of illegitimate relationship to her mother Nana, and father Jalil who is a Herati businessman, and already has three wives. He visits her every week, bringing gifts and news of the outside world, as Mariam and Nana are confined to the kolba, a secluded hovel built by Jalil. Mariam is sick of the life she lives and wants to go to her father’s mansion. Nana warns her of the outside world, of how misogynist and sexist it is, and how her father is only doing all this good do her for his penance of the crime. Mariam does not listen to her, and escapes to the streets and finds his mansion. She knocks but the servants do not let her come in. She sleeps outside on the street the following night. The following morning, she is picked by the chauffeur to drop her a kolba but only finds Nana, hanging by the neck from the willow tree.

Later, Mariam’s story connects with Laila.

Laila is a Farsi girl, a generation younger than Mariam, who has the privileges that she a.k.a. Mariam did not get. She goes to school, plays with children, reads, writes. Her father, Babi, is a former schoolmaster (currently working in a bread factory) who has a heart for poetry and reading. Her mother, Mammy, is a housewife who gossips in the neighbourhood, cooks, throws celebratory parties. Laila has a crush on her childhood friend, Tariq, a boy of Pashtun descent with a limp leg. They play, tease each other, dream of future prospects, watch films, study. Just like any other ordinary friendship.

Except that things change when Mujahideen come.

*breathes heavily* Okay, the summary is going to be really long so I’ll just skip over the plot.

Nana’s suicide was enough to point out to me that this book is going to be brutal. Hard-core brutal.

Mariam’s stoic/silent character is very sad. The hardships she goes through…. it’s just so heart-wrenching.

Babi, Laila’s father, is so kind and empowering. He truly believes, unlike the rest of the people, that women need to work side by side with men in order to succeed. Here is his quote:

“‎I know you’re still young but I want you to understand and learn this now. Marriage can wait, education cannot. You’re a very very bright girl. Truly you are. You can be anything you want Laila. I know this about you. And I also know that when this war is over Afghanistan is going to need you as much as its men maybe even more. Because a society has no chance of success if its women are uneducated Laila. No chance.”

Babi’s death was a shockwave for me.
Reminded me of the death of Hans Hubermann in The Book Thief.

Mariam is like a mother to Laila, after Rasheed, the drunkard-extremist-barbaric-misogynistic-ruffian-shoemaker, has married and tortured both of them. She sacrifices herself just to save Laila, Tariq and their children, hoping to secure for them a better life than what she lived through. (Yes, I cried)

“I’m sorry,” Laila says, marveling at how every Afghan story is marked by death and loss and unimaginable grief. And yet, she sees, people find a way to survive, to go on.”

As a Pashtun myself, I deeply feel the pain woven in this book.
I pray for Kabul, for Afghanistan, for all the Afghan refugees who have left their bleeding motherland in hope of a better future.

“One could not count the moons that shimmer on her roofs,
Or the thousand splendid suns that hide behind her walls.”

I am thrilled at how realistic this book is, how honest the author is with the pain, the brutal truths. Hosseini did an excellent job at writing, because this book was mean to be instilling the reality around us. This is probably the best feminist book I have ever read to be written by a man.

A 4.7 for this masterpiece:
⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐/5

Recommend this novel to those who liked The Book Thief, as a reminder of how war destroys generations of our innocent youth, regardless of the countries and culture they live in. ❤

✧─── ･ ｡ﾟ★: *.✦ .* :★｡ﾟ･ ───✧