A Thousand Splendid Suns

Thank you to Adrienne for hosting us in a lovely discussion about the Silver Chair. Our next book, hosted by Marianne, will be A Thousand Splendid Suns by Khaled Housseini.

The novel opens with the introduction of Mariam, a girl growing up in a small village on the outskirts of Herat in western Afghanistan. She lives with her mother, Nana, an embittered woman who is frequently resentful of her daughter whom she bore out of wedlock. Mariam busies herself with lessons in reading and writing from Mullah Faizullah, an elderly, kind-hearted cleric, and weekly visits from her wealthy father, Jalil. Mariam has heard of her father's other wives and children, who live with him at his lavish home in Herat, but has never visited them due to the stigma of her being an illegitimate child.