A Thousand Splendid Suns

A Thousand Splendid Suns

Khaled Hosseini has authored something I totally didn’t expect.  It’s evident through the writing style that it’s written by Hosseini, but the construction of the plot and how it was executed was very different to what I’d expected. The book is broken up into four parts. Part one tells of the story of one particular girl and her family, then part two tells a story of another girl and her experiences. It isn’t until nearly the end of part two that there is any mention of a connection.

The only negative criticism that I have of the book was the sudden (bordering on abrupt) end to Part 1 of the book. There was just no obvious indication to me that the story of the first girl was going to end and that I would be following the story of a completely different character.  I have to confess that I find the beginning of books the hardest because I always like to absorb and paint descriptions that I read in my head.  So just when I felt I was getting comfortable, I felt like I had to start up all over, painting a second picture and a set of different scenes and groups of people in my head.

Both stories merge seemlessly together in Parts three and four of the book and although not a non-fiction book, the story provides somewhat of an insight to life in Afganistan and a very brief and slightly biased account on the histories of Afganistan from the time the Soviets were ousted til the invasion of Afganistan during the Bush term in office.

The book is absolutely heart-breaking and although not as suspensful as I expected, it was still a book I couldn’t put down as I neared the end.  Many people I’ve spoken feel that Kite Runner was overated, I never said that ‘Kite Runner‘ was a ten-out-of-ten type of book, but in my own humble opinion ‘A Thousand Splendid Suns‘ is a excellent read and I dare say a better read than ‘Kite Runner’ due to the interesting way the plot is constructed.