It is not because of the literary élan, not just the context – the infamous war in Afghanistan which adversely affected generations of its inhabitants, it’s the simplistic story telling approach of Hosseini that makes A Thousand Splendid Suns such a memorable book.

It is essentially an emotive display of perennial sentiments that sustain mankind under unthinkable circumstances. It is this humanitarian aspect of civilization that kindles the ‘lust for life’. Even today, in the age of materialistic dominance, global corporatocracy, vested interests and military decree, this simple depiction of love, life and aspirations have managed to capture endless hearts.

The two protagonists - Mariam and Laila can transcend space and time easily and dissolve in the realm of perceptive womanhood lost in chauvinistic principles guarded by economic and political instability. They could have been faces in any country of our worst nightmare where basic humane nuances are ravaged in the name of pietism or public demonstration of hostility by inept governance in times of war.

Much like the author’s previous bestseller The Kite Runner, this novel begins with a couple of one-dimensional characterizations – of Mariam and Laila. Mariam, who is subjected to social resentment due to her illegitimate birth, always guarded by a wretched, over-protective mother and Laila, who in spite of having born in a broadminded, close-knitted family is alienated by her depressive mother, much of it a resultant of the absence and finally demise of her elder brothers. The story of the two protagonists shape up gradually amidst familial situations, inner turmoil and devastative hegemony marked by Soviet invasion, civil wars and the rise of the Taliban.

In order to get rid of “the last trace of their husband’s scandalous mistake”, Mariam’s biological father Jalil’s three wives spruce up a matrimonial alliance for her with a Pashtun widower Rasheed, who is almost thirty years older than his bride-to-be! From here on, Hosseini orchestrates sensitive, revealing details of Mariam’s conjugal life, her deflowering episode, the ecstasy and agony of her regular domestic life. One can’t help but appreciate the degree of sensitivity at the description of Mariam’s feeling of fulfillment on conception and later the trauma post miscarriage. It reminds of Amir’s miserable disposition upon not being able to procreate in The Kite Runner.

While life played crooked games with Mariam, Laila grew in the academic environs of a Farsi household in Kabul. She had inherited her great-grandmother’s “hair color-as well as her thick-lashed, turquoise green eyes, her dimpled cheeks, her high cheekbones and the pout of her lower lip” so needless to say she was very desirable. But her heart pounded for her childhood sweetheart Tariq, who was crippled by a land mine and used a prosthetic leg. The romantic repertoire of Tariq and Laila, though little Hollywoodesque, manages to sustain the exuberance in the narrative, especially considering the scenario where Laila’s family like every other household in Afghanistan was suffering the holocaust of Jihad against the Soviets. The grotesqueness was to the extent where “a young Mujahid was saying the Soviets had dropped gas on his village that burned people’s skin and blinded them. He said he has seen his mother and sister running for the stream, coughing up blood”!

Along with the frequent casualty and the occasional “fatiha” of the near and dear ones, Hosseini like Garcia Marquez in Love in the Time of Cholera highlights the magical details of romance convincingly that would have under incapable hands seem mundane and ordinary.

Eventually, the gruesome consequence of the then civil war tarnishes Laila’s dalliance and she undergoes severe emotional and physical injury.

The twist in the tale comes with the union of the uncouth, elderly Mariam with the intelligent, charming Laila.

By this time, Laila bears the fruit of her romantic liaison with Tariq and is in dire straits by the thought of giving birth to Tariq’s baby in a refugee camp.

“She pictured its tiny body washed by strangers, wrapped in a tawny shroud, lowered into a hole dug in a patch of windswept land under the disappointed gaze of vultures.”

After the harrowing news of Tariq’s death, marrying her saviour Rasheed was inevitable.

Laila’s marriage to Rasheed had a catastrophic effect on Mariam. This woman who had been subjected to merciless humiliations in life had taken refuge in the solace of domesticity but with one cruel stroke of fate her personal space and control was shattered. Yet, with passage of time Mariam experiences a zealous attachment to Laila and her infant daughter Aziza. The author has illustrated some heartwarming sequences of female bonding over cups of tea and domestic chores. Once again the readers are reminded of similar contentment related to male bonding in The Kite Runner.

The mutual dependency of Mariam and Laila finally matures into a bond capable of achieving the impossible. The novel adheres to immense suspense and drama at this stage climaxing at the noble sacrifice by Mariam.

With an insight into the rich cultural heritage of Afghanistan, its ethnic diversity and a torrid love sequence in times of war, A Thousand Splendid Suns is indeed a soul-stirring narrative worth cherishing.

Somanjana C. Bhattacharya is a post graduate from the Department of Social Sciences, Jawaharlal Nehru University in 2002. She is a freelance writer and lives in Hamden, Connecticut.

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