Dear Khaled Hosseini,

I am your typical, average American girl. I live in a suburban neighborhood, go to school every day, come home to do homework and chores, and I go to church every once and awhile with my family. This is why your book, A Thousand Splendid Suns, caught my attention, more so than any other book I have ever read. It demonstrated a completely different lifestyle than my own, which opened my eyes to how important it is to understand what these characters went through.

As I walked into class my sophomore year, I dreaded the next book we would have to read. Before this book, I wasn’t too fond of reading, not because I didn’t like to read, but I had trouble finding a book I could enjoy and understand. Certain books I had read had a decent story line, but not an important one.
When I was handed this particular book, I wondered what it could be about. I wasn’t sure if it was about the history of Afghanistan or religion, but I knew from the first chapter, I was about to enjoy this book.

Within the first couple chapters, it talked about a girl, Miriam, who had been treated poorly by her mother, seen her mother’s suicide, who rarely saw her father, and when she did, she was basically disowned because of who she was and who her mother was. Then, at a young age, her father married her off to a man she had never met, and again, was soon treated poorly by him as well.

Then, as the story shifted to another girl, Laila, the lifestyle was completely different. Laila, with a father as a teacher, and a best friend she’d fallen in love with, had a pretty decent life. Before she knew it, she lost it all as they all were killed. She thought her love, Tariq, had been killed as well, when he really hadn’t been.

As I continued reading, I was drawn to the characters as I felt their pain. It really gave me a closer look on how everyone has a life that can be completely different from one another. It not only demonstrated women strength, but also love and violence.

Then, as the story went on, Laila had to move into the house with Mariam and her husband, Rasheed. Rasheed was abusive because his first son had drowned when Rasheed was very drunk. It was all put on him, so since then, he had wanted a boy. Laila had gotten pregnant from Tariq before she moved in with Rasheed, so she pretended her daughter was Rasheed’s. Later on, Laila and Rasheed had a son as well.

Throughout Rasheed being abusive to the two wives, Laila and Mariam, it gave me the insight on how terrible it could be to live how their lives were. Although this was a fictional book, it showed me how this cruelty to women actually happened.

I enjoyed to two stories of Miriam and Laila, how they were both completely opposite stories that formed into one inspirational outcome. The two stories helped me to connect to the characters easier. Miriam and Laila, two completely opposite girls who grew up in two different worlds by their heritage and being brought up differently, yet they were the same by not being accepted as women. It is sometimes difficult to understand someone or something that is completely opposite from me or the way I live, but the way you described their lives in this particular book was astonishing.
At moments, I felt as if I was the character while the sentences I read and the word usage were in great detail. Although I have a completely different life than Miriam and Laila, it demonstrated to me how woman can have great power and strength. When they both felt no self-worth, they strived to keep going. It gave me strength to read this book and know that someday I could have as much bravery as they had.

Thank you for writing this amazing piece of literature, Mr. Hosseini. I would enjoy reading more of your inspirational books in the future.

Steph