Khaled Hosseini

I thought of a few titles for this blog. Should I say A Thousand Splendid Suns ? or Should I say Kite Runner ? or Should I say a book review ?. However neither of these fit as the content I had in mind isn't a review of either of these two books but it was more about the author , his style and his mastery of blending various beautiful aspects of life with the not so glamorous ones. Hosseini has a unique style of narration that keeps the reader stuck to the book. Either it be the point where Amir knows about Hasan's death in Kite Runner or the point where Marriam sees her mother hanging by the tree , Hosseini starts with the action after the event and comes backwards. An intriguing style. This is a sample from A Thousan Splendid Suns.

"Morning brought no relief. The muezzin's call for namaz rang out, and the Mujahideen set down their guns, faced west, and prayed. Then the rugs were folded, the guns loaded, and the mountains fired on Kabul, and Kabul fired back at the mountains, as Laila and the rest of the city watched as helpless as old Santiago watching the shark take bites out of his prize fish."


Through his two books Hosseini presents the real Afghanistan to us. For a lot of people who think Afghanistan to be synonymous with terrorism , these two books offer a different perspective. Be it The Kite flying competitions of Kabul or the wonderful city of Herat or the culture of the pashtuns or the verses from ancient persian poets Hosseini shows us that there is much more to Afghanistan.

However, the most important feature of Hosseini's works is his mastery at describing how his central characters get haunted by one of their actions throught their life. Be it Amir not rescuing Hasan in Kite Runner or Mariam leaving her mother to find Jalil , only to return back and find her dead. These actions (or rather failures) of the protagonists keep coming back to disturb them through out the book. One final feather in his hat is the skill with which hosseini combines various human emotions in the backdrop of war. Education , Romance , love , sentiment and the pain of parting , all in the backdrop of a 40 year old conflict that wrecked the lives of thousands of Afghans is something that is bound to make you sympathize with the Afghans.

At the end , one cannot help but feel for the plight of Afghanistan and the havoc fundemantalism is creating in these parts of the world leading to the destructiong of some of the most beautiful cities and cultures of the world. Hope sense and sanity prevail and prevail very soon.