A thousand Splendid Suns

A thousand Splendid Suns was written by Khaled Hosseini, an American writer of Afghan origin who became world famous in 2007 with the adaptation of his novel The Kite Runner to a film of the same name.

Whereas The Kite Runner dealt mostly with the world of men and the friendship between them, A Thousand Splendid Suns deals with women before and after the Taliban invasion.

It tells the story of two women from two different backgrounds (within Afghan culture) and how their lives become one. Mariam is the daughter of a rich man, but she’s a harami, an illegitimate child, and when her mother dies her father’s family marries her off to Rasheed, a shoe maker from Kabul. Laila is the daughter of an intellectual and is in love with her neighbour and best friend who leaves Kabul with his family just before both her parents get killed. Mariam’s and Laila’s stories become one when Laila sees that she has no choice but marry Rasheed.

It tells the story of the two women and it tells the story of Afghanistan. I think it’s an attempt at explaining how things reached the point they have in Afghanistan. To show that it was a normal country with a normal society before the Taliban imposed the Sharia.

To read or listen:
(I recommend listening so you have the proper pronunciation of the Afghan words)

                                               

                  

book

audiobook

                                 









                           
There is a film due in 2015, read here.

By the same writer The kite runner - book and film

Kite Runner - book

Kite Runner - audiobook

Kite Runner - film

                                     










Watch the trailer:

Midnight's Children

I have only recently read Salman Rushdie for the first time and absolutely loved it. When you read /watch /see something you enjoy that much you have a tendency to tell all your friends about it. When your friends don't share your enthusiasm you are forced to tell people who do want to know even if you don't know them.

Midnight's Children is the story of Saleem Sinai and his family and simultaneously a History of India. Saleem Sinai is born on the stroke of midnight on the 15th August 1947, precisely at the moment India becomes independent from Britain and from there his story and the history of India are one.

To people who grew up in a world where magic does exist, "magical realism" doesn't really exist in the sense that we have no difficulty believing all the things described in the novel, we don't need a label, we believe.

If you like "magical realism", history, travel, religion etc., I highly recommend you read this book! And although I don't usually read books just because they have won a prize, there must be a reason why this book won not only the Booker Prize but the Booker of Bookers and the Best of Bookers.

Enjoy!