A Thousand Splendid Suns

Disappointed, Mariam starts walking one could not count the moons that shimmer on her roofs,

Or the thousand splendid suns that hide behind her walls”

- Saib-e-Tabrizi

(‘Kabul’. Translated by Josephine Davis)

The title of the epic and simultaneously devastating as well as inspiring novel,A Thousand Splendid Suns comes into existence from the above lines. Khaled Hosseini has openly dedicated his book to the woman of Afghanistan. Cover of the book shows a young woman, whose head and face is covered with a veil. She is walking down a rough patch of land under the scorching sun. The cover in itself speaks a million words about the condition of afghan woman such as poverty, abuses and broken family relationships.

All this is the reflection of the

He is a physician by profession and a citizen of United States of America. The oldest of five children, his father Naseer was a moderate Muslim who worked as a diplomat for the Ministry of Foreign Affairs in Kabul, while his mother worked as a Persian language teacher in a girl’s high school. Both his parents originated from Herat, the place that Hosseini has referred to in his book also and talked about it at length. In 1976, the foreign ministry relocated Hosseini’s family to Paris. Later in 1980 they were ready to come back to their homeland but did not due to the invasion of the Soviet army. So they moved to the San Jose, California in the United

However her growing years are disrupted by the afghan war, for which both her brothers leave to join the army. Laila then finds comfort in the company of Tariq, her best mate who was just a few years older than her. When Laila is an adolescent, her family is struck by grief due to the death of both her brothers in the war. A few years pass, and the war reaches the streets of Kabul. By now, Laila and Tariq are teenagers and have fallen in love. Tariq tells her that he and his family are fleeing to Pakistan soon. The couple then makes love for the first