A difficult book in many respects, for lovers of The Kite Runner, this book is no disappointing follow-up. 

It is in fact a searing examination of the role of women in Afghanistan through the late 20th and early 21st century.

It made me smile, cry, question my own outlook on life, and most of all, realise how lucky I am.

A must read for anyone wanting to gather a better understanding of the world, this book really is as good as The Kite Runner and, I think, actually explores more difficult topics. 

I was set The Kite Runner as one of the books for my A-level English Literature coursework, and I’m really glad I was. Admittedly it’s not a book I probably would have picked up otherwise, and that would have meant I would never have picked up A Thousand Splendid Suns either.

Rather than sticking to one central female character, Hosseini introduces various females, all with their own personal struggles, but all living in the same context of an Afghanistan which is repeatedly fragmented by war over the late 20th and early 21st century.

This is a conflict we’ve all seen on the news, but Hosseini’s writing has the capacity to take you right to the heart of it, into the living rooms of Kabul as war rages all around, and makes you see it in a completely different way.