Book Review: A Thousand Splendid Suns

I just finished an amazing novel. A THOUSAND SPLENDID SUNS, written by Khaled Hosseini is written with such passion and depth and insight it was amazing to me that a man wrote it. His insight into women's emotions and how they think was truly inspired.

This is the story of two women who live in Afghanistan from the late 1950s until 2007. From vastly different backgrounds, they both wind up in the same place and learn to love and rely on each other in a way neither of them have before.

Reading about the the wars and dissentions, the changes that this lovely country has endured over the years brought tears to my eyes. The women there have gone through so much, put up with such sorrows and indignities that it makes you respect them in such a way as to view them as heroines. I cannot imagine, nor would I pretend to say I know, what their lives have been like and how they have made it through such hardships.

This story, these women, were so real to me that their names and faces swirl around in my mind even though I have put the book down. I find it hard to believe these people don't truly exist.

But the one overriding emotion that gripped me as I read Hosseini's novel was one of gratitude. My heart is so full of thanks that I have been given the opportunities, freedoms and life that I have; that I need not fear for my life or the lives of my children or family. That I can and do have an education, the ability to express my opinion, am able to travel about freely without fear of recrimination, and most of all, that I may feel/believe/think whatever way I wish.

I'm glad I found and read this book. My eyes and heart have been opened and touched.