" A Thousand Splendid Suns" by Khaled Hosseini

“A Thousand Splendid Suns” is a novel written by Khaled Hosseini. When I  read “The Kite Runner” Hossaini’s first book, I fell in love with his work. So, reading his other book was a must for me. Although, “A Thousand Splendid Suns” is not as easy to follow as “ The Kite Runner”, due to the structure of the plot, it is just as powerful and heartbreaking as the first book. The book is divided into four parts. Part one was dedicated to Miriam, one of the main characters of the story, a girl who was born an illegitimate child to a very wealthy man married to tree other wives, and a poor maid, who lived in the outskirts of Herat. By the age of fifteen Mirriam, was forced to marry a man, who was 30 years her senior. She was just a child then and even the thought of marrying a man so much older than her was terrifying. But what choice did she have? Her mother hung herself from the fear of being deserted by her daughter and her father did not want her. Mirriam’s husband, Rasheed, turned out to be a very abusive and cruel man who did everything in his power to put his wife down. The only thing he ever wanted from her was that she gave him a son. Unfortunately, every time  Mirriam became pregnant, she lost a child, and that drove Rasheed into a rage. He abused her physically and mentally, and there was nothing she could do to escape it.
The second and the forth parts of the book were dedicated to Leila, a stunningly beautiful girl born to a very liberal and educated family, that perished during the bombing of Kabul by the Russian air forces, leaving Miriam all alone to struggle for survival. That was how she found herself marring Rasheed. Rasheed obviously was flattered to have such a young and beautiful wife, and at first he treated her a lot better than Miriam. But shortly after she gave birth to a little girl, he became suspicious of Leila and started abusing her as well.
The third part of the book was dedicated to both main characters, who had to live under the same roof, learn to accept each other, and eventually sacrifice their own lives to save one another from the brutality of their husband. I fell in love with these women because despite their unbearable lives, they managed to stay strong and prevail despite all odds. I would highly recommend this book to the high school students ages, 16 and up, because it will give them a new perspective on life in general, and women in particular, in a country like Afghanistan, where human rights do not exist and religion in the hands of extremists  becomes a weapon in treating women as inferior creatures.