This book reads as though Danielle Steele was dropped into Afghanistan and told to set one of her stories there. Other than that, this novel is actually very good.
A Thousand Splendid Suns
offers a wonderful insight into life in Afghanistan during the 1970's through to the 2000's. Hosseini allows you to accompany the Country and its characters during their experience of the Soviet invasion and civil turmoil under merciless Warlords, to zero-tolerance Taliban rule in the 1990's. The US-led invasion of 2001 is long awaited in the book and offers much needed hope to the fictional characters (and I imagine the real life individuals that were involved). A very informative novel, both historically and culturally, and one to make you exceedingly glad that you were born a Western woman (if indeed you are a Western woman). Read it. You will be pleasantly surprised, and, dare I say, a better human being for doing so.
