A Thousand Splendid Suns - Khaled Hosseini

Title: A Thousand Splendid Suns
Author: Khaled Hosseini
Country: American/Afghan
Year: 2007
Rating: A-
Pages: 372 pgs.

First sentence: Mariam was five years old the first time she heard the word harami.

What I thought: It's difficult to follow a first novel with the acclaim that The Kite Runner has, which happens to be one of my favorite books. For the most part, A Thousand Splendid Suns stands on its own. It is a powerful story of two generations of women living in Afghanistan over the span of three decades. Their stories are intricately woven with the modern history of Afghanistan. I really enjoyed reading this novel, but did feel at times as if this history became the main character of the story, rather than Mariam and Laila.