Reviews with content warning for Police brutality - A Thousand Splendid Suns

This was a really beautiful and sad novel about two women caught up in the Afghanistan wars. Both Mariam and Laila were written with such depth and love.

Mariam's childhood and relationship with her parents were terribly sad. Nana wished for a miscarriage while Jalil didn't want to publicly acknowledge that Mariam existed at all.

Now a list of quotes/spoilers

The children of strangers get ice cream. What do you get Mariam? Stories of ice cream.

There was a sort of intergenerational trauma in this story where Nana lived unhappily and passed on the burden of living to Mariam where she suicided the day Mariam went out to meet Jalil. Laila and Aziza also faced a brunt of Mariam's unhappiness early in their relationship.

There was a brief sort of joy when Mariam thought the arranged marriage was going to be okay: "Nana had been right about Jalil's gifts. They had been half hearted gifts of penance, insincere corrupt gestures meant more for his own appeasement that hers. This shawl, Mariam saw, was a true gift".

Each snowflake was a sigh heaved by an aggrieved woman ... as reminder of how women like us suffer. How quietly we must endure all that falls upon us.

Laila never would have believed that a human body could withstand this much beating, this viciously and regularly but keep functioning.

I liked the islamic flamingo with water colour pants story! It was a light hearted break... after we got the revelation that Tariq never died!!! What I was screaming internally.

When Mariam swung the shovel and killed Rasheed, wow, I'm glad that she was the one to do it in the end. It was powerful that she saved Laila's life and ended their suffering. There was no other light hearted moment for Mariam.

All the call backs at the end of the story were so sad. The signing of her life away for the second time, the visit to her childhood outside of town and even to the Pinocchio movie (Jalil's letter/cinema call back was very sad).

I'm happy that Mariam's sacrifice gave Laila a better chance at life. She became a teacher and Aziza got to go to school. It's all wonderful especially if Laila has another baby girl, she already knew what to name her.

Content Warnings

epellicci's review against another edition

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challenging emotional 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? It's complicated

4.5

Hossien's writing is beautiful and immersive. In this retelling of Afghanistan history through two women's perspectives, he takes the reader right to the center of a brutal world of war, assault, grief, and eventually hope. I got angry, I cried, and I felt hope both with and for the main characters. Mariam and Laila are fantastically written, and through them Hossien explores a range of sensitive and potent topics in a way that pulls no punches. Despite this, the plot doesn't overtake the characters and over the course of the story they evolve in ways that allow the reader to remain optimistic and invested in their futures, while also being proportionate to the struggles surrounding them.
However, I do have some criticisms. This book was hard to read. While its brutality paints a breathtakingly realistic world and sheds light on the important truth that thousands of women, especially refugee women, are living through, it was oftentimes repeatedly graphic and hard to stomach. I had to take a break from the book on more than one occasion in order to re-prepare myself to face the narrative. As well as this, there is a lot of history crammed into a relatively short book, and I found that sometimes specific events and details were lost in the general heaviness of the plot. However, I think the authors aims were successfully met - this book is engaging and moving, and evokes both compassion and empathy towards the plight facing many Afghan women.

Content Warnings

char1otte's review against another edition

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adventurous challenging emotional informative inspiring sad medium-paced

Plot- or character-driven? A mix
Strong character development? Yes
Loveable characters? Yes
Diverse cast of characters? It's complicated
Flaws of characters a main focus? No

4.75

This was devastating, but eye-opening and, at times, wonderfully inspiring and beautiful.

Content Warnings

qqjj's review against another edition

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challenging dark emotional sad tense medium-paced

Plot- or character-driven? Character
Strong character development? Yes
Loveable characters? No
Diverse cast of characters? No
Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated

5.0

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