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A Thousand Splendid Suns by Khaled Hosseini is difficult to put down. From the moment we meet Mariam a harami (bastard) in Afghanistan, we are enthralled by her story. Her first fifteen years, as the illegitimate offspring of a rich man, she spends in isolation with her rancorous mother.

At fifteen Mariam is married to a bitter and evil man thirty years her senior and sent to live in Kabul. Afghanistan’s recent history is the backcloth for the story and we live through it with Mariam and Laila, a young neighbour, stricken by tragedy, who is taken on as Rasheed’s second wife.

The ties between the two women strengthen but, as women, they are powerless against the brutality of their husband. The story is shocking and very moving for the reader as we live with Mariam and Laila through political turmoil, extreme violence, near starvation and a kind of final triumph.

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