Khaled Hosseini has done it again. A Thousand Splendid Suns, the breathtaking follow up to the award-winning Kite Runner, continues with life in Afghanistan, this time dealing with the female perspective in the war-torn country’s last 30 years.

In “Splendid Suns,” war not only brings together fear and struggle, but also the lives of two characters from different generations who form an unlikely bond. Hope, terror, love, and faith, mix and mingle over 30 years of Afghan history. Hosseini tugs at the heartstrings by presenting an unbreakable love and a knot-tight friendship set amongst Afghanistan in its familiar turmoil.

“Splendid Suns,” deals with the plight of women in Afghanistan, their hardships from public appearance to being denied a proper education.

Mariam, the illegitimate daughter of a businessman and a woman who has taken her own life, is married off to Rasheed, a brute shoemaker with a mouthful of insults and ridicule for his wife whom he also forces to wear a burqa.

Mariam’s friend-to-be, Leila, the beautiful daughter of supportive intellectuals, and the girlfriend of Tariq, also joins the downward spiral when a rocket destroys her home and family.

Tariq flees Afghanistan for refuge in Pakistan, and Leila finds herself alone on the streets of Kabul pregnant with Tariq’s child. She hears that Tariq has been killed in Pakistan and agrees to marry Rasheed as she has none else to turn to.

Mariam accuses Leila of stealing her husband, but when Laila’s baby, Aziza, is born, the two girls form an inseparable bond. Mariam helps to raise little Aziza, and the two young women find themselves protecting each other from the wrath of Rasheed.

Hosseini succeeds in painting a tragic picture of the harsh reality we know as Afghanistan; a beautiful country with beautiful people, torn apart by the reign of the not- so-beautiful Taliban.

i-94 dedication in memory to King Mohammad Zahir Shah