Book Review -- A Thousand Splendid Suns

The mention of Afghanistan conjures images of gunfire, bloodshed, fuzzy power struggles and refugee conditions in a hot desert country, conveyed by world media reports. A Thousand Splendid Suns authored by Khaled Hosseini is a welcome departure from sordid images, and tells us the story of Afghan citizens whose lives are disrupted, transformed and redefined by the state of affairs of their nation.

The protagonists of the story are two women, Mariam and Laila. Mariam grew up in an isolated village near Herat and had never been to school because her mother did not believe in it. She learnt Arabic from an elderly cleric who taught her at home. Laila grew up in Kabul and went to regular school. Her father doted on her. He believed that educated women would help lead his country to a glorious future. They come together as the two wives of Rasheed, a conservative man in his sixties.

The book reveals many interesting facts about Afghanistan’s ethnic diversity (Pashtuns, Tajiks, Uzbeks, Hazaras) and its history. The country was a monarchy under King Zahir Shah until the erstwhile USSR invaded the country in the late 1970s. The northern hill tribes sought to protect their territory and soon had support from the other parts of the country.

Hosseini has represented a wide variety of views about the political situation and this is what makes his story-telling brilliant. Laila’s father firmly believed that the communist rule was good for Afghanistan because it believed in education and equal work opportunity for all. He tells Laila during communist rule that it was the best time to be a woman in Afghanistan, because there were educated women holding high posts in government, education and just about every field.

The impact of war on the human psyche is described vividly through several episodes. Many families lost their sons to the war and Laila’s family was among them. Her mother mourned the death of her sons and vowed allegiance to the Mujahideen. The war was over in 1992 and the Russian troops withdrew. Laila’s mother put up a poster of her sons’ leader and hero Ahmed Shah Massoud in her room and celebrated his victory with a lunch party of her own.

Communist propaganda is illustrated through Laila’s teacher at school, Khala Rangmaal. She taught them that the USSR (along with Afghanistan) was the best country in the world because “it was kind to its workers”. She said their country would be the same once the “anti-progressives” were defeated.

The end of the war heralded a new power struggle. The Afghan forces consisted of several leaders, each with their own army and ideology. The armed factions found targets in each another and innocent civilians. Societal freedom was replaced with fundamentalism, and the worst victims were women. Pamphlets were distributed door to door by the Taliban, stating do’s and don’ts for daily life. Burkhas became compulsory and a woman could not leave her home, unless escorted by a male member. Education was restricted to boys. As Mariam’s mother put it, the only thing a woman needed to learn was tahamul or endurance and schools did not teach it. Rasheed had enforced these rules on his two wives before the militia did and he regarded the activities of the Taliban indulgently, as if they were spoilt children.

Most people fled or tried to flee to neighboring countries to seek asylum and a new livelihood. Laila and her family however returned from Pakistan to their native land believing that they could and would make a difference by being there. Pathos, humour, patriotism and the power of hope are woven skillfully together in this heart-warming narrative.

The book gets its title from a 17th century poem about Kabul which ran
“One could not count the moons that shimmer on her roofs,
Or the thousand splendid suns that hide behind her walls”.

A Thousand Splendid Suns is published by Bloomsbury. Hosseini’s other well known book is ‘The Kite Runner’. He is a practicing doctor and lives in California. Do visit www.khaledhosseini.com for reviews and the author’s comments on his works.