Books : A Thousand Splendid Suns

Rating: - A metaphor for Afghanistan
Utterly brilliant. The characters in the book, particularly the main protagonists, are metaphors for Afghanistan and everything that that country has endured. Clever, compelling and providing an insight into a country which we hear about frequently, but actually hardly know.

---

Rating: - Superb - I struggled to put it down!!
Well - after being unfortunate enough to have read a string of dull books, A Thousand Splendid Suns was super.
I thoroughly enjoyed it and refreshingly found the style in which Khaled Hosseini writes really easy to follow and emotion provoking. I sometimes think authors try to be clever and 'jump about' from character to character or timeframe/period to timeframe/period (I hope you know what I mean!!). But Hosseini writes honestly and so well that you're never struggling to keep up with what's going on.
I felt I actually knew the main characters and felt really empathy for them and their circumstances - I cried twice.
It proved a real eye-opener as to life in Afghanistan - particularly the hardships that face, and have faced women. There are quite a few political and historical references but don't be put off by this, they don't for a second make the book hard-going.
Fascinating and brilliant - would recommend it to anyone. In fact, if you enjoy this book, try 'Princess' by Jean Sasson .... a similar theme and just as good.

---

Rating: - Written to perfection.
Amazing. The best book I have ever read Khaled Hosseini writing style is simply brilliant. Once you start reading you can't put it down. I loved every single page it is deeply moving and heart breaking. Well done Khaled Hosseini.

---

Rating: - History through the eyes of ordinary people
For far too long history has been the story of rulers and revolutions viewed from above. The people appear as statistics if at all. Now we are seeing writers who show us the story from below, through the eyes of the ordinary people who experience and suffer it. The drivers of the events - the politicians, warlords and religious leaders - are now put in their rightful place, in peripheral vision.

This is an enthralling account of the last twenty or so years of Afghanistan. Reading this book brings the names of the high actors such as Najibullah, bin Laden and Karzai into focus and describes the activities of the Soviets, the Taliban and the Mujahideen factions. But they are seen by their effects on a group of people whose lives intertwine. Those lives are blighted, and sometimes ended, by events, but we are left admiring their fortitude and courage and their ability to give and receive love and comfort even in the worst circumstances.

Above all, though, it is about the lives of women during war and in the face of the best and worst that Islam offers to them. We learn what it is like to have no power in the face of brutality and hardship and to have to make heartbreaking compromises.

This is about Afghanistan but it is also a metaphor for the innocents who suffer whenever the horns of the mighty clash together. It could no doubt equally be told about Iraq, Palestine, Bosnia and the Sudan, or indeed countless other areas where we ordinary people are caught in the whirlwind.

This is a book that everyone should read. It is told simply and with great feeling.

---

Rating: - Books good, Karls better...
I loved reading a thousand splendid suns. This started me thinking is there anything rounder than the sun; my conclusion was there is non but that of Karl Pilingtons head...roundest in the world.