Reviews - Mille splendidi soli

16.9k reviews for:

4⭐️
Wow I wasn’t ready for this book.
This book is so heavy but also beautiful!
It’s so hard to read about the horrors presented in this book TW: DV
I always love a story that spotlights resilience though and this surely does. Women finding strength through female friendship is so redemptive.

pratt282's review against another edition

4.75

adventurous dark emotional informative inspiring sad tense medium-paced

Plot or Character Driven: A mix

Strong character development: Yes

Loveable characters: Yes

Diverse cast of characters: Yes

Flaws of characters a main focus: No

jonnyg80's review against another edition

5.0

8th book of 2017. Checked out of Dallas Downtown Public Library.

My friend Christina invited me to join her book club, which was a wonderful surprise and a great honor. I've always had visions of being in a book club, so this fulfilled a long time dream. Alas, I missed the meeting because of a wicked cold, but I've been promised a seat at the table for next month's meeting.

I read Hosseini's The Kite Runner several years back, and remember really enjoying it. Hosseini is a great story teller, and even when presenting a region and culture which is completely foreign to me, I found myself quickly integrated. The pacing of the book is superb, with short chapters leading one to keep saying "well, maybe just one more". I found instant emotional connection with both of the main characters, Miriam and Laila.

The book is riveting. And it is absolutely heartbreaking. Reading this book around the same time as International Women's Day provided a more profound experience for me. The novel brings to life the horrors that women have to face in Afghanistan, and provides a great glimpse of how regime change does not always lead to greater freedoms and justice. The villains within the book are so real and the truth of the patriarchy is suffocating.

Yes, there are some "happy ending" moments in the book, but they are muted by the harsh realities of those around the main characters. This is not a book with a traditional, triumphant heroine, and I found myself cringing at the real truths that met Miriam and Laila throughout the novel.

Miriam and Laila are strong, independent, intelligent women stifled by an injust system. But, the ways in which they overcome the horrors of their inevitable situation are uplifting.

Read it. Revisit it. A book that gives a realistic view of women's rights in Afghanistan over the course of three decades.