Lustrous tale well told
Harsh A Desai

A Thousand Splendid Suns
by Khaled Hosseini
Bloomsbury. Pages 367. Rs 520

"I don’t recognise Kabul".

So remark two of the characters towards the end of the book and that is what Khaled Hosseini’s much-anticipated book A Thousand Splendid Suns is all about. It is a personal history of the people living in Kabul during the late 1970s, 1980s and the 1990s during the Communist takeover, the Russian occupation, then the reign of terror by the mujaheeddin and during the terror unleashed by the Taliban.

You see the lovely city surrounded by snow mountains coming slowly but surely to its knees. And every time there is a regime change there is hope and then hope dashed. But you also see the amazing strength and resilience of the Afghan people living through the turbulent times and can not but cheer the resilience of the human spirit.

The story is told through the eyes of Mariam — a young girl who grows up in tragic circumstances in the country side but is married to a much older man and comes to Kabul and Leila, a girl growing up in Kabul — and much younger than Mariam and Tariq a one-legged boy who has lost his leg due to a mine and with whom Leila has a passionate romance. Rasheed and Mariam rescue Leila after her house comes down during a rocket attack by the mujahaddin.

Thereafter Rasheed marries Leila though she is much younger and takes her as his second wife though she is a mere child. Mariam is first unbelieving and then accepting as she slowly builds a friendship with Leila and becomes almost a mother to Leila’s children. It is as much a story of Mariam and Leila’s friendship as it is about Leila and Tariq’s romance.

The story is engaging, even gripping, most of the way and Hosseini paces the story so that it has the texture and feel of a thriller and you cannot but protest when you are interrupted in your reading. It is a page turner with sudden and explosive violence which happens unexpectedly and surprises you every time though you should know better. But the problem is that the book doesn’t end at the climax and goes on for another 30 pages where the author seems to be paying homage to Afghanistan and doing a bit of propaganda for Hamid Karzai which would be fine generally but is completely unnecessary in a tightly written book like this one.

The name of the heroine, Leila, should be a give away as to what to expect as Leila is also the name of the tragic heroine from the old Persian poem about Leila and Majnu. But of course, the author is slightly smarter than you are. The story is sad at the beginning and gets sadder still and one of the few tranquil moments of the book is a picnic to the Bamyan Buddhas and you can not but help shiver at thought of what is to come not only for the characters but also for the Buddhas.

Hosseini keeps you on your toes most of the way and you are pulled into the vortex of the tragedy and are getting more and more involved in the lives of the characters.

Comparisons with Khaled Hosseini’s first book The Kite Runner which was a huge bestseller are inevitable and you could say that whereas The Kite Runner was the story of a young boy Amir growing up this book is the story of Leila a young girl growing up and her life in Kabul through the 1980s and the 1990s. But the canvas of this book is wider and the scope more panoramic. But because of the last 30 unsolicited pages the book lacks the satisfying end that the Kite runner has; but for all that it is at the top of many bestseller lists around the world.

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