 | A Thousand Splendid Suns is a breathtaking story set against the volatile events of Afghanistan's last thirty years -- from the Soviet invasion to the reign of the Taliban to post-Taliban rebuilding -- that puts the violence, fear, hope and faith of this country in intimate, human terms. It is a tale of two generations of characters brought jarringly together by the tragic sweep of war, where personal lives -- the struggle to survive, raise a family, find happiness -- are inextricable from the history playing out around them. Propelled by the same storytelling instinct that made The Kite Runner a beloved classic, A Thousand Splendid Suns is at once a remarkable chronicle of three decades of Afghan history and a deeply moving account of family and friendship. It is a striking, heartwrenching novel of an unforgiving time, an unlikely friendship, and an indestructible love -- a stunning accomplishment. |
Monday, January 19, 2009
A Thousand Splendid Suns by Khaled Hosseini
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A Thousand Splendid Suns
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Mariam – illegitimate child of Jalil and Nana, lives in a kolba in Gul Daman. She is a harami, a bastard.
Nana – Mariam's mother who was a housekeeper for Jalil, the “jinn” enters her body and causes seizures
Jalil – 3 wives (Afsoon, Khadija, and Nargis), 9 legitimate children, owns a cinema in Herat
Bibi Jo – a friend of Nana's
Mullah Faizullah – village Koran tutor, the akhund. Taught the five daily namaz prayers
Her half-brothers bring food and supplies to them once a month. It was either Muhsin and Ramin or Ramin and Farhad. Nana says the one skill you need in life is to endure. In 1973, King Zahir Shah was overthrown as the ruler of Kabul. Afghanistan was then a republic ruled by his cousin Daoud Khan. Her father told her that he would take her to the cinema for her birthday, but he never showed up. She walked to Herat and slept outside his house even though he was inside. When she returned, her mother had hung herself. Jalil came to take her to live at his house. Her sisters are Niloufar and Atieh. Niloufar's mother, Afsoon, tells her to go downstairs to meet a suitor, Rasheed who is a shoemaker in Kabul. She sleeps in a different room. Rasheed is nice to her at first, and then gets abusive. He makes her wear a burqa instead of just a hijab. He is a widow, and his son Yunus drowned at a lake. She gets pregnant, but miscarries at a bathhouse. Communists took over in 1978. That day, Rasheed makes her chew pebbles because she undercooked sofrah. The communist president was Najibullah.
Fariba has two sons, Noor and Ahmad who die in the war for the Mujahideen against the Soviets. Her husband is Hakim, a teacher, who was fired after the coup. She also has a daughter Laila, who is friends with Tariq, who lost his leg to a landmine in Ghazni. Her two friends are Giti and Hasina. Khadim sprayed urine out of a squirt gun on her when Tariq goes to Ghazni again, and he returned late because his uncle was sick. He beat up Khadim when he returned. Hasina was married off. In 1992, the Soviet began crumbling. The jihad was over, and Najibullah surrendered. Giti had a suitor named Sabir, but she was killed by a stray rocket. The mujahideen turned and fought amongst itself. Tariq kisses her, then leaves because his father isn't well. They have sex, and he wants to ask her father for her hand, but she won't leave him. Laila and her parents plan to leave Kabul for Peshawar, but her parents are killed by a rocket. Rasheed nurses her back to health. He tricks Abdul Sharif to come and say that Tariq died, and Rasheed asks for her hand in marriage. She accepts because she is carrying Tariq's child. Mariam is jealous of Laila. Rasheed prayed for a boy, but it is a girl, Aziza. Rasheed blamed Laila's fighting with him on Mariam. Laila started stealing money from him to run away with Mariam and Aziza for the spring of 1994. Laila and Mariam become friends. At the Lahore Gate bus station, they ask a man and his wife to pretend that they are his cousins, but he tells the men they are traveling alone, and they send them back to Rasheed. He beats them and forces Mariam to live in the toolshed for awhile. The Taliban come in 1996, and killed Najibullah who was hiding in UN headquarters. They pass laws to restrict women. Laila's water broke, and they had to go to a women's hospital. She got a caesarian with no anesthetic. It was a boy, Zalmai. Rasheed wants Aziza to beg to help support the family, and Laila punched him. They buried their TV to keep it safe from Taliban raids. Rasheed's store burned down, and they sell everything. Jalil had tried to contact her again, but she ignored him, and now he's dead. They send Aziza to an orphanage. Tariq came back. He works at a small hotel and has a dog, Alyona. Mariam killed Rasheed because he was beating Laila for talking to Tariq. Laila and Zalmai leave for Tariq's hotel, and Mariam admits to killing Rasheed, and a Talib shoots her. Ahmad Shah Massoud was killed, and America announced war on Afghanistan. Laila visited Mariam's kolba, and Mullah Faizullah's son, Hamza, gives her a box which has Pinocchio in it, the movie Mariam wanted to watch with her father.