Text in Arabic. Mariam is only fifteen when she is sent to Kabul to marry Rasheed. Nearly two decades later, a friendship grows between Mariam and a local teenager, Laila, as strong as the ties between mother and daughter. When the Taliban take over, life becomes a desperate struggle against starvation, brutality and fear. Yet love can move a person to act in unexpected ways, and lead them to overcome the most daunting obstacles with a startling heroism. The sense of longing evoked in Khaled Hosseinis novel is compelling and universal: the passionate search for love, family, home, acceptance, a healthy society, and a promising future, regardless of the obstacles. This novel transcends boundaries and illuminates the people and culture of a region that has been reluctantly thrust into the international spotlight.

Spectacular...Hosseini's writing makes our hearts ache, our stomachs clench and our emotions reel... Hosseini mixes the experiences of these women with imagined scenarios to create a fascinating microcosm of Afghan family life...Hosseini writes in gorgeous and stirring language of the natural beauty and colorful cultural heritage of his native Afghanistan... Hosseini tells this saddest of stories in achingly beautiful prose through stunningly heroic characters whose spirits somehow grasp the dimmest rays of hope USA Today Hosseini's illuminating book [is] a worthy sequel to The Kite Runner Los Angeles Times Hosseini's bewitching narrative captures the intimate details of life in a world where it's a struggle to survive, skillfully inserting this human story into the larger backdrop of recent history San Francisco Chronicle A masterful narrative... He is a storyteller of dizzying power Evening Standard Only the hardest of hearts could fail to be as moved Glamour In case you're wondering whether A Thousand Splendid Suns is as good as The Kite Runner, here's the answer: No. It's better Washington Post

Khaled Hosseini was born in Kabul, Afghanistan and moved to the United States in 1980. His first novel, The Kite Runner, was an international bestseller, published in over fifty territories. In 2006 he was named a US goodwill envoy to the United Nations Refugee Agency. A Thousand Splendid Suns, his second novel, was published in 2007. The same year, he founded The Khaled Hosseini Foundation to provide humanitarian assistance to the people of Afghanistan. He lives in northern California.