B3. A THOUSAND SPLENDID SUNS

I feel foolish to admit but in all my years of reading I have never fully devoted myself to reading all the written books of one particular author. My routine usually consisted of finishing a given book and then jumping onto Goodreads to find out what was the latest buzz on what everyone else was reading. That is, until I picked up my first book from Khaled Hosseini.

I stumbled upon his first and most famous book "The Kite Runner" at my job. We were having a massive book exchange and his novel just happened to be on the top of the overflowing bin with countless others. My boss encouraged me to take whatever I liked and having heard that title somewhere before, I decided it might be worth a shot to read it. Of course, without my fellow expertise from Goodreads urging me to start the narrative, the book lay dormant on my shelf for a few weeks.

Until boredom struck. And then I was hooked.

Khaled Hosseini is not just an author, he is a storyteller (and yes, there is a difference). Hosseini writes as if he is telling you the story and it brings to light some of the significances of keeping oral storytelling alive. Reading his work is like floating on water, it's gentle and you ride the current with ease, following wherever the plot may take you. Now, that isn't to say that there aren't a few bumps along the journey. In fact, his book "A Thousand Splendid Suns" probably has its fair share of tidal waves...no better yet, tsunamis. But it is something in the way he writes, something in which he is able to connect words on a page together, that make his writing so alluring and artistic.

I will not dive into "A Thousand Splendid Suns" into full detail because I know I would not do it justice. All you need to know, is that you must read it. As a short introduction, the book primarily focuses on two characters, Mariam and Laila, who develop an unlikely mother-daughter bond after dealing with abandonment, domestic abuse, and a shift in women's rights during the war in Afghanistan. Their stories are of heartbreak and loss, but even more so, of finding a place in society and in the familial unit. If you are looking for a love story, you won't find one until the middle/end of the book. But it is a love story most needed after witnessing the horrifying events preceding it. And it was beautiful.

And so I will leave my review as that and let Hosseini do the rest. Because it is worth going through the storm to reach the calm shore at the end, or at least a gentle bob in the water. The book is worth the read.