Another Stunner from Hosseini

Well I just finished A Thousand Splendid Suns by Khaled Hosseini and I thought it was wonderful. Even for me that's quick reading as I just started it last Friday. I couldn't put it down - it was even better than The Kite Runner if that's possible.

The Kite Runner, due out as a movie this fall (see trailer below) was an eye-opener for me as far as how people in Afghanistan lived but this novel just swept me along and I felt so much for the two heroines, Mariam & Laila. I just read on Google that "Suns" might be out as a movie in 2009 - Oh, I hope so!

It's so easy to watch all the awful things that happen in the world and to get immune to it. If I'm honest I haven't really thought (or cared) about what's happened to Afghans over the last 30 years but this book made it personal and I cried a lot towards the end. Now yes, I know I've gone soppy since Jack was born and Craig tells me I cry at the drop of a hat but I promise I don't normally cry at books! What I didn't realise till I read this book is how BAD it still is there and how war lords and the Teleban are still controlling parts of the country.

Anyway, maybe we'll start to see more of these kinds of movies - real stories from Afghanistan and Iraq and Darfur. It's certainly an effective way of making it real to people like me.