A Thousand Splendid Suns

It’s a compelling–if truly unsettling–read, this second novel by the Afghani author Kahled Hosseini. His "The Kite Runner" was a bestseller, indeed, probably selling a good many more than the few tens of thousands required to be called a bestseller. In this one, women are the focus rather than children, along with the whole recent (well, almost three decades) tortured history of Afghanistan. It shows quite graphically how awful women can have it in an Islamic country, though here the main villain is practically an atheist. He doesn’t even go to the mosque until the Taliban forces everyone to go, and one of the gentlest characters, with the best intentions for one of the main women characters, is a Muslim preacher. I don’t want to give away too much, but as you slog through the depressing parts, reading on to find out what happens next, take heart for a promising conclusion.