A Thousand Splendid Suns by Khaled Housseini (Reaslistic Fiction)

This is another book set in Afghanistan, but this book really highlights the injustices women face. This book shows the stories of 2 generations of  women who meet up at a certain point in the book. Mariam, the older one, grew up knowing the good Afghanistan, before war and violence. Her mom was a servant for a rich man, and they had her, not purposefully. So, her and her mother were dissed the rest of their lives. One day, her father decided to give her away, because, he really couldn’t deal with the shame of her. Mariam was 15 and he gave her away to a man named Rasheed who lived in Kabul, on the other side of Afghanistan. Then the story switches over to a girl named Laila. All she knows is the violence, she was born after the Soviets came in. Also, she just happened to live down the street from Mariam and Rasheed. One day her brothers died in the war and that broke her mother. A few years later the Taliban move in. Laila is 15 and her parents to decide to move the family to Pakistan. While Laila was outside the house and packing the car, a missile hits her house, and both her parents die, while she gets away with a few major injuries. Rasheed and Mariam find her injured on the street and help her. Rasheed, now Mariam knows, makes Laila marry him to pay back for how he helped her. Rasheed is mad that Mariam can’t give them a baby, never less a boy, so he tries with Laila. The rest of the story is how they are treated so terribly by Rasheed, but a main question looms, will they ever be free?

This was a sadder, but it is a “I'm on the edge of my seat” kind of book with a very heartwarming ending. What I really like about this book is how the author wrote so magnificently. Even the seemingly boring parts of the book had me hooked! Also, I really believe that the injustices women face in all places is an important thing, but especially in countries like Afghanistan where the Taliban treat them so terribly. I really love this story and how it has a happy ending, and how the author writes about how badly women are treated by men there. I really think anyone, young adult and up, should really read this book, because not only is it such a grappling and amazing book, but it has a lot of stories and lessons that need to be told. This book really made me think about the injustice's women face, not only in Afghanistan, where it’s terrible, but in America too. Like, I know we don’t force women to cover up, and domestic abuse and rape is a big crime, but still in the workplace they’re oppressed and in many other factors of our society. This book is really well written and opened my eyes a lot, I hope if you read it, you like it too! 

Reviewed by Sebastian W., Grade 9