A thousand Splendid Suns by Khaled Hosseini

Depressing book by a weak writer

It's pretty rare that a book has nothing to add, but this one doesn't contribute anything to your understanding of Afghanistan. Instead it panders to every cliché about the country ever written (downtrodden wives, injustice, a pariah state). It seems like a defence for American foreign policy and contributes nothing you couldn't gain from a mainstream newspaper article or radio news bulletin around the time of the invasion. Hosseini's judgement is poor and he repeatedly stretches credibility with his plot. Characters make massive decisions (to hang themselves, to hand themselves in to the police) with very flimsy reasons and without any time to reflect. The characters are thinly drawn with little explanation for why they are the way they are, and they are very black and white: either good or evil. It's also extremely depressing, but with a syrupy ending tacked on the end. A misjudgement.

2.0 out of 5 stars