A Thousand Splendid Suns by Khaled Hosseini

The author, Khaled Hosseini was born in Kabul and now lives in US. In this book, he wrote about life of two ordinary women in Afghanistan from 1960s to 2003.
 
Mariam was born out of wedlock. She was forced into a marriage with an abusive widower who was almost 30yrs her senior and had to move from her hometown in Herat to Kabul.
 
Laila, daughter of Mariam's neighbor was a bright and educated girl. During the 1990s civil war, Laila lost her parents and was heavily injured herself.  Laila was saved by Mariam's husband, who later made Laila his wife (Why can’t he adopt Laila as his daughter!!).
 
After reading the book, I start to appreciate the human side of the Afghanistan people – they love their family, friends and country. They enjoy music and arts. They have dreams and aspirations.  Behind the burqa wore by Afghanistan women, I could feel the great surge of emotions – mostly helpless, sad, desolation though.
  
I like an ‘Islamic’ humor therein- Taliban found some paintings of flamingos and took offence at the birds’ long, bare legs. The Taliban commanded the artist to either destroy the paintings or make the flamingos decent. So the artist picked his brush and painted trousers on every bird. So, there you have it – Islamic flamingos! But the artist had the last laugh – he painted the trousers with watercolor. When the Taliban were gone, he just washed them off!

Overall, the sad story has a happy ending with great hope. I look forward to reading The Kite Runner by the same author.