The Kite Runner And A Thousand Splendid Suns – Two of The Best Books That I’ve Read in Many Years.

Through apathy or insularity, there can have been very few of us who could with any honesty have claimed to know very much about Afghanistan’s last 50 years of history.  Until the fateful day in September 2001, few of us knew more than the fact that Afghanistan had been to the Russian military what Vietnam had been the United States – an unwinable guerrilla war. Subsequent events however, brought the term Taliban into the public consciousness and while neither novel deals with the September 11 events specifically, both provide a background for how the Taliban came to power and highlight in great detail the extremism of the regime and its impact on non-fundamentalists in every aspect of their daily lives.

Hardly holiday reading you might think, but this could hardly be less accurate. What both novels do is weave great tales of friendship, betrayal, loyalty, suffering and ultimately the indomitability of the human condition that leaves the reader with an uplifting feeling as the last page turns. No, neither book finishes with a pithy “and they all lived happily ever after”, but more like “they all lived differently and more wholly ever after” and I believe some of this seeps into the reader too.

Hosseini’s characters are as complex and layered as any that can be found elsewhere in literary fiction today. The relationships between them are real and believable and genuine sympathy is felt by the reader at their varied and difficult plights. Having read thousands of novels (and left at least as many unfinished), I know that the main reason I have for disliking (or not finishing) a novel is being unable to connect with the protagonists – and while I have no kinship with Afghanis, I do share the same feelings of happiness when with friends, disappointment when let down by friends – disappointment when I’ve let friends down which makes it easier to see and feel these characters as leaving and breathing people.

The landscape he paints is alive with colours and smells that can take an untravelled westerner on a literary voyage and transplant them right into the heart of the story. I have no qualms in saying that several times I read passages and was moved to tears – I’d never even heard of the giant Buddha, but reading of its destruction touched something in me and made me thing of the Iconoclasts or the bonfires of vanities from history.

So if you’re looking for something special to read – (no offence meant Mr. Brown) The Kite Runner and a Thousand Splendid Suns must be at the top of your list.