A Thousand Splendid Suns Annotation

Hosseini, Khaled. A Thousand Splendid Suns. New York: Riverhead, 2007. (367 pages)

                I have begun to read a lot of interesting and different books this year. Each one is different than the other and there aren’t two books that are alike. This year I have read The Help, The Shack, and many others that are each based in a different time period and in a different setting or country than the last. A Thousand Splendid Suns was definitely not an exception to this trend.

                A Thousand Splendid Suns is basically a book centered on the inner strengths of women and how they deal with their struggles. This is also a first theme in the books I have read. It’s very interesting to read about the strengths of these women because I am a woman and can think from the same point of view. I think it adds to my personal experience of the book because of the female similarity.

                The setting of this book really isn’t completely different from others I have previously read. I should say time period because the location is completely different.  From what I can tell, this book is around present day, maybe later like the 1970s or 1960s or so. This time period isn’t really that different from other books because they were all written about the same approximate time. The location of the book however, is in Afghanistan. Previous books were mostly based closer to home or with the same type of culture. I find it interesting to read a book located in Afghanistan because I am not really familiar with the customs or landscape in Afghanistan.

                I found this book to be very interesting. I think that the setting change contributes to my fascination and the story is actually very moving. There were so many times I found myself awestruck by what Mariam was dealing with and it just made me glad I wasn’t in her position. (331)