A Thousand Splendid Suns (2007) (edit title/settings)

Ridiculously Simplified Synopsis edit see section history

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Summary edit see section history

Characters edit see section history

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• Mariam: One of the two protagonists; has a fiery will and a strong heart that is repeatedly crushed by the men she meets.
• Laila: One of the two protagonists; Hakim and Fariba's daughter. The story is about the trials she has to face along with Mariam.
• Nana: Mariam's mother, who verbally abused her
• Mullah Faizullah: Mariam's teacher and friend. He is also respected by Nana as she was also taught by him.
• Jalil Khan: Mariam's father. He has 3 wives who don't like Mariam. He has quite a few other children as well.
• Khadija: One of Jalil's three wives.
• Afsoon: One of Jalil's three wives. She also dislikes Laila
• Nargis: One of Jalil's three wives. She dislikes Laila too.
• Hakim: Laila's father - educated and wants his daughter to study as well.
• Fariba: Laila's mother
• Rasheed: Laila and Miriam's husband. Antagonist. Shoemaker from Kabul. He is thirty years older than Mariam.
• Mohammad Tariq Walizai: Laila's childhood playmate and best friend. He is two years her senior, but appreciates her intelligence and wit. He lost part of his leg in early childhood and wears a prosthetic.
• Aziza: Laila's daughter, who plays vital role in bringing Laila and Mariam together. She gives Laila the power to change their circumstances.
• Zalmai: Laila's son, he brought happiness to his father but also despare to Laila
• Mullah Giti: One of Laila's childhood friend
• Hasina: Laila's childhood schoolmate and friend. She is married off at a young age and goes to Australia with her husband.
• Noor: Laila's brother, who left the house when Laila was just a little girl. She has little recollection of Noor and has just seen his photos in her house.
• Abdul Sharif: Doorman at the Hotel Intercontinental in Kabul
• Rasheed: the most cruel man in the novel whose second marriage is at age 45 and third at 60
• Bibi Jo: Friend of Nana who visited her in the mountains. She knew about Nana and Jalil. Mariam and mothers friend from the mountains who visited Mariam. Bibi jo was an old lady who had many sons and was always accompanied everywhere by her daughter-in-law
• Daoud Khan: King of Afghanistan after a bloodless take-over from his cousin.
• Gulbuddin Hekmatyar: A Mujihadeen leader.
• Alyona: Tariq's goat that he bought in Murree.
• Laila: She has hope and she trys to bring change where she would usually be forbidden to but somehow still manages to achieve it
• Babi: Add a description of this character.
• Ahmad Shah Massoud: Leader of Mujaheedin loved by all
• Mammy
• Dostum
• Naghma
• Nila
• Majnoon
• Hamza
• Rabbani
• Najibullah
• Rahman
• Laili
• Jack
• Wajma
• Muhsin
• Sayeed
• Niloufar
• Wakil
• Zaman
• Hafez
• Jami
• Sayyaf
• Salim
• Osama bin Laden
• Khala Rangmaal: Teacher in Laila's class who was open minded
• Abdul Qader
• Baba Mazari
• Khadim
• George W. Bush
• Nasir Bagh
• Rumi

Quotes edit see section history

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• “Like a compass needle that points north, a man's accusing finger always finds a woman.”

  Nana

• “Regret... when it comes to you, I have oceans of it.”

  Jalil

• “Women have always had it hard in this country, Laila, but they're probably more free now, under the communists, and have more rights than they've ever had before.”

  Babi

• “Tell your secrets to the wind but don't blame it for telling the trees.”

  Laila

• “A society has no chance of success if its women are uneducated...”

• “To me, it's nonsense - and very dangerous nonsense at that - all this talk of I'm Tajik and you're Pashtun and he's Hazara and she's Uzbek. We're all Afghans, and that's all that should matter.”

  Babi/Hakim

• “<Miriam>...A woman who will be like a rock in a riverbed, enduring without complaint, her grace not sullied but shaped by the turbulence that washes over her. Already Laila sees something behind this <Miriam's> young girl's eyes, something deep in her core, that neither Rasheed nor the Taliban will be able to break. Something as hard and unyielding as a block of limestone. Something that, in the end, will be her undoing and Laila's salvation.”

• “I will follow you to the ends of the world.”

  Tariq

• ““Nor was she old enough to appreciate the injustice, to see that it is the creators of the harami who are culpable, not the harami, whose only sin is being born.””

• “The past held only this wisdom: that love was a damaging mistake, and its accomplice, hope, a treacherous illusion. And whenever those twin poisonous flowers began to sprout in the parched land of that field, she uprooted them. She uprooted them and ditched them before they took hold" (229)”

  Narrator

• “Though there had been moments of beauty in it. Mariam knew that life had not been kind to her. But as she walked the final twenty paces, she could not help but wish for more of it”

  Narrator

• “This was a legitimate end to a life of illegitimate beginnings”

  Narrator

• “It falls on the sober to pay for the sins of the drunk.”

• “That love was a damaging mistake, and its accomplice ,hope ,a treacherous illusion .”

  Mariam

Setting & Locations edit see section history

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• Kabul: Capital city of Afganistan
• the kolba: Where Mariam lives with Nana. It's basically a hut. It's outside Herat.
• Herat: The town where Mariam's father, Jalil, lives with his wives and other children.
• Karteh-Seh: An orphanage in Kabul.
• Walayat: A women's prison.
• Murree: A town.
• Peshawar: City in Pakistan which held the war refugees.
• Bamyan, Afghanistan: The village which housed the giant Buddhas. Hakim, Laila and Tariq overlooked the village from near the head of Buddha.

First Sentence edit see section history

Table of Contents edit see section history

Glossary edit see section history

• Kolba: A Hut or very simple home
• harami: A child born out of wedlock; a bastard
• tahamul: to endure
• jinn: a demon which possesses the body
• nikka: wedding
• tabreek: congratulations
• tandoor: a special oven for baking bread; often a communal oven
• hamshira: a term used to address a female; sister
• salaam: a greeting; peace
• chup ko: shut up
• inqilabi: revolutionary
• badmash: hooligan, bad person
• aush: a soup made with noodles and different vegetables in a tomatoe based broth
• dokhtar: girl
• fatiha: the central prayer of Islam, used on all special occasions
• namaz: prayer; 5 prayers said daily in Islam
• shaheed: holy martyrs
• rafiq: a friend
• sofrah: a spread of items laid out on the floor for eating
• fatiha: can also mean funeral; prayers said after one has died
• jaan or jo (after name): used to express respect; "dear" or "life"
• ambagh: co-wife

Series & Lists edit see section history

Authors & Contributors edit see section history

1. Khaled Hosseini (Author)

Other Contributors:

1. Josephine Barry Davis
2. Amanda Dewey (Designer) - Book Design
3. Honi Werner (Designer) - Jacket Design
4. Andrew Testa (Photographer) - Jacket Photo
5. John Dolan (Photographer) - Author Photo
6. Josephine Barry Davis (Translator) - The Poem "Kabul"
7. Elisabet W. Middelthon (Translator) - Norwegian translation
8. Atossa Leoni (Narrator)

First Edition edit see section history

Awards edit see section history

• Abraham Lincoln Award (Finalist, 2011)
• British Book Award (2008: Richard and Judy Best Read of the Year)

Classification edit see section history

• Library of Congress: PS3608.O832K58
• Dewey: 813.6

Notes for Parents edit see section history

Violence and adult themes.

Subjects edit see section history

• Books › Literature & Fiction › Literary
• Books › Literature & Fiction › Contemporary
• Books › Literature & Fiction › World Literature › Middle Eastern

More Books Like This edit see section history

Books with Additional Background Information edit see section history