Years back I'd seen Kite Runner and I never really felt drawn to reading the book. Perhaps because it was a best seller.
Recently, however, I ended up reading A Thousand Splendid Suns.
What a marvellous story! It opens with a kind of fairy tale told by a father to his two little children. From there the thread of narrative takes us down dusty roads, through the fanciful world of a certain Kabul, and thence onwards trips merrily across continents, leaving me, an Indian, with at least one scene from my country, one memorable and pivotal scene...
At least over the first half of the book the author holds in tight rein the story of many lives and, though the latter part is as enchanting, the pace slackens somewhat as if to somehow contain that exuberant diversity of continents and destinies.
The characters are larger than life, mostly, and memorable. As are some places described.
Hosseini is almost godlike in his compassionate overview, the humanist in him in no way diluting the gifted touch of the storyteller.
This is a perfect book for a holiday, for travel, for convalescence or just to read on a commute and a must read for everyone everywhere.
What a marvellous story! It opens with a kind of fairy tale told by a father to his two little children. From there the thread of narrative takes us down dusty roads, through the fanciful world of a certain Kabul, and thence onwards trips merrily across continents, leaving me, an Indian, with at least one scene from my country, one memorable and pivotal scene...
At least over the first half of the book the author holds in tight rein the story of many lives and, though the latter part is as enchanting, the pace slackens somewhat as if to somehow contain that exuberant diversity of continents and destinies.
The characters are larger than life, mostly, and memorable. As are some places described.
Hosseini is almost godlike in his compassionate overview, the humanist in him in no way diluting the gifted touch of the storyteller.
This is a perfect book for a holiday, for travel, for convalescence or just to read on a commute and a must read for everyone everywhere.
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