A Thousand Splendid Suns
This book is part of the books to read in your 20s list shared by my friend Yash.
A Thousand Splendid Suns is an amazing book. I completed it in four days, forcing myself to read till 2 AM daily.
The book’s story is set in Afghanistan during and after the Soviet occupation. It has two protagonists. First is a girl who is an illegitimate daughter of a wealthy business man. She grows up in a shed in the outskirts of town with her mother, because the man does not want to face the public humiliation. She goes through a traumatic childhood with fake love and care. Finally, she ends up getting married to a widower who is twenty years older than her. In her new home on the other side of the country, she faces an abusive life under her new husband.
Fast forward fifteen years, a girl is born in the neighborhood of first girl’s current home. However this girl has a better childhood with progressive parents who support her education and freedom. She also has a boy friend whom she wishes to marry when the time comes. But due to the civil war, the boy (along with many) leave Afghanistan. One day, the girl’s household is struck by a rocket and both of her parents die. She is rescued by the husband of the first girl and ends up marrying him under false pretenses.
Now, we have two women with approximately a fifteen year age gap wed to an abusive husband facing domestic violence and cruel reality of being a woman in a conservative regime. I have read the author’s famous book The Kite Runner before. But at least that book was filled with ups-and-downs. It had few moments of hope and positive mood then and there. Compared to The Kite Runner, A Thousand Splendid Suns is so depressing. I used to tell myself please, at least give a positive twist now. But no. The story gets sadder and sadder as pages flow.
The conclusion might be a little happy ending, but that’s because the book finishes around the timeline of US invasion of Afghanistan. Knowing what happened later in Afghanistan makes the conclusion a nightmare.
I’m not a person with political and cultural knowledge. But it sickens to know that there are authoritative people in every society, irrespective of religion, community, country, literacy, gender or age, who take pride in resorting to violence and suppression against another.
Finally, if you are someone who easily gets emotionally attached to characters in a book, then be known that you have been warned.
