In Hosseini's unforgettable debut novel, The Kite Runner,
twelve-year-old Amir is desperate to win the local kite-fighting
tournament and his loyal friend Hassan promises to help him. But neither
of the boys can foresee what will happen to Hassan that afternoon, an
event that is to shatter their lives. After the Russians invade and the
family is forced to flee to America, Amir realises that one day he must
return to an Afghanistan under Taliban rule to find the one thing that
his new world cannot grant him: redemption.
In his second novel, A Thousand Splendid Suns, Hosseini
begins his story with Mariam, who is only fifteen when she is sent to
Kabul to marry Rasheed. Nearly two decades later, a friendship grows
between Mariam and a local teenager, Laila, as strong as the ties
between mother and daughter. When the Taliban take over, life becomes a
desperate struggle against starvation, brutality and fear. Yet love can
move a person to act in unexpected ways, and lead them to overcome the
most daunting obstacles with a startling heroism.
