As an avid reader and want-to-be author, I have no doubt that words are powerful. A picture may be worth a thousand words but few images have the power to call forth emotions unbidden. Only one image has ever made me cry when I was confronted with it unexpectedly during an art exhibition – Caravaggio’s Depostion.
Words, on the other hand, often move me to tears. A love note from my wife or a child. A piece of poetry. A story in which I am fully immersed. However, in my life there have been only three books to make me weep. The first as a teen when reading Where the Red Fern Grows by Wilson Rawls for the first time. I distinctly remember my teenage self crying my eyes out in my bedroom at the death of Dan and Ann. The second, about 10 years ago, when reading Island of the World by Michael D. O’Brien. Emotionally wrecked, I swore I would never read a book by O’Brien again (but I did). The third, as I emerged from the vivid, brutal, world of A Thousand Splendid Suns by Khaled Hosseini. I wept for the brutality and beauty of Hossenin’s characters, world, and situation which I believe are true to life even today.
Like Hossenini’s other famous novel, The Kite Runner, this story takes place in Afghanistan. Here we follow the lives of Miriam and Laila over the course of 30 years from Soviet occupation to the Taliban takeover.
This book is not an easy read because Hossenini spares no one from the brutal reality of life during this turbulent time period (which continues today). I was most heartbroken by the way women were(are) treated in this culture. Miriam is an illegitimate daughter of a wealthy businessman who is shunned by her father’s wives and family. Lilia is young girl in love with a boy in town who finds herself pregnant and alone after her family is killed and he is taken away by his family to escape the war. Both women end up married to the same man, Rasheed. Never before have I hated a book character so much that I wanted to do physical harm to the non-existent person until I met and got to know Rasheed.
Yet, through all of the brutality, war, strife, and suffering, Hossenini’s work is still filled with life and hope. It is a fictional (or perhaps not) illustration of the indominatable human spirit. A spirit that will sacrifice, even self, for love of another.
Although difficult to take at parts, it is an excellent read and perhaps even a must read type of book. Like me, you may even walk away with a deeper compassion for your fellow man or woman knowing that others are struggling with things you cannot see or even fathom.
Even now, after reading this story months ago, my heart still breaks for Miriam and Laila. Yet knowing how the story ends, I’m filled with hope not only for these fictional characters but also for the real life women living in this situation. I pray for them often. I highly recommend this book but be ready to suffer vicariously with them and perhaps for them.
James M. Hahn, Author 