Have you ever thought about what life is life half way around the world? A Thousand Splendid Suns, by Kahled Hosseini provides the perspective of what life is like half way around the world. This book is a fiction but it is based roughly on how life is in Afghanistan and the struggles people go through. It’s an appropriate book for ages 11-18 but I would say that someone wouldn’t get the full grasp of the aspect of the book until they’re about 15. It goes into detail about what the female life is like because it’s sad but true that they look down upon women in the middle-east. Personally I think this is extremely unfair and wrong because women have proven they can do just about anything a man can do. 
Miriam is a young woman who lives in a small city just outside Afghanistan. She lives with her mother Nana, and only sees her father, Jalil once a week or so. He is a very successful businessman, and Miriam wants to live with him. He says no and she sleeps on the street and the next day she is brought home, to find out that her mother committed suicide. She lives with Jalil, but not for long because his three wives don’t approve of Miriam so they ask for Jalil to set her off to marry Rasheed, a widow who lives down the road. At first Rasheed is nice but then she realizes he only wants to replace his son that he lost, but Miriam kept having miscarriages. A young girl, who lives down the street named Laila, has found the love of her life, Tariq, but he had to move due to the war and she was pregnant when he left. He says to her, “I will follow you to the ends of the world” and he is showing that no matter what direction she goes in, he will follow her even if she decides to switch and go a different path. After she had received word that Tariq died, Rasheed marries Laila and they have the child together. One day a man comes to her door and it is Tariq. Rasheed hired someone to tell her that Tariq died so she would stay with him, and when Rasheed finds out Tariq is home he beats Laila until Miriam kills him with a shovel. Miriam gets arrested and executed, and Tariq and Laila move away and she becomes pregnant and decides if it’s a girl she will name her Miriam.
I thought this book was painful to sit through but the author did a good job of presenting the book in an informational, yet fictionist way. Nobody knows what life half way around the world is like until they experience it for themselves, and you cant judge someone because you don’t know what they’re going through. They say “Marriage can wait, education cannot” because you need education in your life before anything else, it is an absolute necessity and marriage is a luxury and you can’t have luxuries before necessities.