Publisher: Penguin Group (US edition), Bloomsbury (UK edition), 384 pp. However, at least some of the success of A Thousand Splendid Suns (and its forerunner) can be attributed to the fact that, before their publication, there had been few novels in the English-speaking world that dealt with Afghanistan, a literary gap Hosseini set out to fill.A Thousand Splendid Suns by Khaled Hosseini. In terms of the novel’s form, Hosseini was deeply influenced by John Steinbeck’s The Grapes of Wrath, which he first read in high school and whose descriptions of the bleak lot of migrant farmworkers reminded him of the plight of many Afghans. Persian literature is heavily based on poetry rather than novels Hosseini grew up reading Rumi, Hafez, and Omar Khayyám, and throughout the novel there are references to these and other classic Afghan poets such as Ustad Khalilluah Khalili, Nezami, and, of course, the 17th-century Saib-e-Tabrizi poem that gives the book its title. His first novel had focused on male relationships in the expatriate Afghan community, but this visit gave him the motivation to concentrate on women’s experiences in Afghanistan. Just before The Kite Runner was published, Hosseini went to Kabul for the first time in 27 years. He also shows the extent to which politics has impacted every Afghan person’s life over the past several decades. By interweaving historical facts, often with dates and leaders’ names included, with the fictional narrative, Hosseini helps to breathe life into what could be a confusing historical lesson for an English-speaking audience. Hosseini attempts to anchor the reader in this complex history, by showing how specific historical events-the departure of the Soviets from Kabul, for instance, or the arrival of the Taliban-impacts the lives of the characters. Finally, the book ends during the American occupation of Afghanistan following the events of September 11, 2001. After a decade of bloody infighting, the Taliban seize control and establish peace but also an extremely strict Shari’a law. After battles with the Mujahideen, or Islamic fighters supported by the United States, the Soviet Union finally withdraws its last troops in 1989 and the Mujahideen take over. In 1978, there is a Communist counter-coup, and the Soviet Union invades in 1979. When the story opens, Afghanistan has recently undergone a bloodless coup in 1973. Throughout this time, Afghanistan was subjected to a series of violent, brutal wars and numerous political coups. The novel takes place over approximately forty years, from the early 1970s, when Mariam is a teenager, to 2003, when Laila is settled once again in Kabul with her family.
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