Like Hosseini's first novel, The Kite Runner, his second, A Thousand Splendid Suns, follows the path of telling stories about Afghanistan through the eyes of native Afghans. However, this story follows the lives of two Afghan women, Mariam and Laila, the first several years older than the second. They have their separate lives up to the point when Mariam's husband, Rasheed, marries Laila.

Rasheed married both women when they were alone in the world, well society. Mariam is the illegitimate daughter of a wealthy man who loses her mother; she has never been accepted in her father's home. When her mother dies, her father and his wives quickly found her a husband. Rasheed married Laila because she was in need of a family and he wanted a child, a son. Laila unfortunately loved another, Tariq, who, she was told, died. Eventually, she learns Tariq is very much alive and they want to be together.

Rasheed treats both of his wives horribly and as the saying goes, what goes around comes around. Some characters get their happy ending; some are led to tragedy.

Very much like The Kite Runner: vividly detailed and a beautiful story. Definitely a must read; even better than The Kite Runner. Hosseini succeeds in sucking readers into a controversial world and yet, as a reader, you do not want to leave.