A Thousand Splendid Suns – Glittering amidst human darkness

A Thousand Splendid Suns is a novel written by the Afghan-American writer Khaled Hosseini.

The novel is witfully crafted around two characters – Mariam and Laila. The way Hosseini characterized these two Afghan women brought him loads of accolades. While the Afghan war acts as the cornerstone of the novel, Mariam and Laila are the two pillars of the story building block. Story is divided into four parts. First part tells the story of Mariam, second tells the story of Laila, third tells the story of Mariam and Laila in alternate chapters and a final part dedicated to the both.

With the success of ‘The Kite Runner’, Hosseini proves once again that he is one of those rare storytellers who can make a rock to weep. Some might criticize the author for his way of handling human emotions and sentiments. But, it is the reality prevailed in Afghanistan from 1979 to till date.  Afghanistan has attained a metamorphic transformation in the past three decades and the author’s description brings the Afghan beauty, Afghan war, Afghan men and women, their mindsets right in front of our eyes.

The intended audience for this novel is the whole world which watched their neighbor Afghans to die everyday in heaps. Even the Unites States entered the war only after they got their own burns. Hosseini’s writing comes as a blow to every nation which is complacent in its foreign policy. The main point proven by this war epic is that ‘whatever happens to our neighbor may well happen to us one day’. In the end, the author wins in establishing his views to the audience.

Tragedy epics do have some air of emotions which will place them under literature masterpiece category. No wonder that Shakespeare wrote more tragedies than comedies. In short, Khaled Hosseini wins our heart with his master story telling and three-dimensional character projections. Even after you turn the last page, the beauty of this story will remain etched in our hearts forever.

A novel can make us to immerse within the plot which will make us to feel the story. Or a novel can penetrate our heart, which will make us to live the story whenever we think about it. ‘A Thousand Splendid Suns’ falls in the latter category.

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