Running to Where You Know Not

In the follow-up to his popular novel The Kite Runner, Khaled Hosseini presents A Thousand Splendid Suns, a vivid tale expressing the lives of women in Afghanistan.

The story follows two women, Miriam and Laila, and the horrors that eventually constitute their existence. In a war-torn society that was once functional and free, both women find themselves separated from all of the love they once knew, and thrown into lives of submission and fear. Hosseini sincerely writes about the complexities of love and relationships between friends, lovers, and family, and beautifully expresses the pain of lost loved ones and the happiness in finding a new family.

What surprises me most about this novel is not his writing, but the reality of the situations. Between the horrific arranged marriages that both women are thrown into, the deception among their male family members, and the physical and mental abuse by their husbands, I cannot help but feel compassion for all those women on the receiving end of such pain and anger for those needlessly causing it.

After a long and rough introduction between Laila and Miriam, they finally find solace and friendship from their mutual hatred for their husband. After losing her family to a bomb, Laila soon finds herself conceding to a lifetime of cruelty. In an attempt to procure a new and young wife, Miriam's husband saves the girl. It is the need to protect her swollen belly, the brewing pot of her action with Tariq her neighbor and love since she was a young girl, that drives her to such a dim house. And it is this child that brings laughter and love to the women's lives.

After their husband notifies Laila of Tariq's death, she accepts his marriage proposal, hoping to give her child a home. After many years and with a fantastic twist, Tariq emerges and her husband's lies surface. The innocence and love shared between Tariq and Laila are undeniable and Miriam ultimately sacrifices herself for that love, beating her husband to death and freeing them all.

It is the reality of this novel and the sheer sincerity with which Hosseini writes that keeps him at the top of my favorites list.