Yet another book that has been eyeballing me from the bookstore shelf fell victim to my voracious reading habit. I have to say that although I liked the book very much, The Kite Runner was better. I loved The Kite Runner. I read it twice in one year, and will more than likely read it again. This one was good, but alas, does not qualify for a re-read. I think that it would have been a better book if there was just one main character that was fully fleshed out. Neither Marium or Laila seemed to be fully done. I liked both and thought both realistic, but I would have preferred the book to focus on one or the other. It was very illuminating to see the inside of a traditional Afghani marriage, and I am afraid I would not have been as patient with Miriam's final decision as she was. Then again, I am not used to being beaten, oppressed, and despised. I found it kind of interesting to read about how comforting a burke can be and never really thought about how much privacy and protection it could provide. I suppose all cages have their bonuses. This one will be off to see the world shortly.

Synopsis

After 103 weeks on the New York Times bestseller list and with four million copies of The Kite Runner shipped, Khaled Hosseini returns with a beautiful, riveting, and haunting novel that confirms his place as one of the most important literary writers today.

Propelled by the same superb instinct for storytelling that made The Kite Runner a beloved classic, A Thousand Splendid Suns is at once an incredible chronicle of thirty years of Afghan history and a deeply moving story of family, friendship, faith, and the salvation to be found in love.

Born a generation apart and with very different ideas about love and family, Mariam and Laila are two women brought jarringly together by war, by loss and by fate. As they endure the ever escalating dangers around them-in their home as well as in the streets of Kabul-they come to form a bond that makes them both sisters and mother-daughter to each other, and that will ultimately alter the course not just of their own lives but of the next generation. With heart-wrenching power and suspense, Hosseini shows how a woman's love for her family can move her to shocking and heroic acts of self-sacrifice, and that in the end it is love, or even the memory of love, that is often the key to survival.

A stunning accomplishment, A Thousand Splendid Suns is a haunting, heartbreaking, compelling story of an unforgiving time, an unlikely friendship, and an indestructible love.

RELEASE NOTES:

Sent to banyantree in trade for Snow. Happy Reading!

What a lovely book - it is a story of love ; the trials and tribulations that two women undergo in their search for love ; one succumbs with the feeling that she is sacrificing for love so that the other lives a life full of love !! Hosseini is definitely a good writer and the images that he draws of Afghanistan bring this country alive in front of the readers eyes. The book also shows in great detail the havoc caused by insensitive imperialists to a beautiful country where ordinary people led beautiful lives only to have it become a dump when the Great Powers spouted venom and fire.... but like life ; love succeeds. Love for a person and love for one's country.

Two women battle it out for their men, lives and their country in this stunning novel - a straight read in one sitting !

A Thousand Splendid Suns arrived in the post this morning, that was fast from India, just 6 days. Many thanks banyantree. The book you requested as a trade The Rise ans Fall of the Third Chimpanzee will be with you shortly.

In many ways this was like reading The Kite Runner from a different tangent; same setting and political situation but this time from a woman’s perspective, I was interested in how Hosseini would write from this angle. And I have to say to my mind it has worked really well. He has written a story that touched us emotionally much in the same way as The Kite Runner, but without any overt sentimentality. His style was objective and sympathetic. The story portrays the hard and cruel existence endured by two women, who had little or no choice at all in how their lives would be lived. Having the story interact between two women of differing ages and upbringing added an interesting dimension and completeness to the narrative.

Thank you banyantree, I hope to move it on again soon.

This will now go to gingergeoff

CONTROLLED RELEASE NOTES:


In the post today to gingergeoff.

Received today from Cassiopaeia. Thanks for this, after reading the Kite Runner, I am looking forward to trying some more from this author.

I felt this was very similar to The Kite Runner in a lot of ways, but it benefited from that as I felt the author did not have to spend time explaining some of the background of Afghanistan. A good story, even if it was a little predictable in places.

WILD RELEASE NOTES:

Sent to rivercassini to help with her reading group.

I hope it travels far...

Safely received. Many thanks for passing it on. I shall be doing the same shortly, sharing it with fellow members of my reading group as this is our choice for November 2008.

CONTROLLED RELEASE NOTES:

Passed on a member of my reading group