“A Thousand Splendid Suns” written by Afghan-American Novelist Khaled Hosseini, is one of the bestseller books worldwide. The book was published on 22 nd May, 2007. The setting of the book is in the midst of the Soviet-Afghan war and further also moves towards the oppressive Taliban regime around 1996. This book tends to create a really engaging storyline with continuous occurrence of new events, debunking new facts and happenings till the very end. However, the author has succeeded in crafting a perfectly knitted story by smoothly tying all loose ends by the time the book ends. The book navigates through the lives of two women in Afghanistan, where both have been brought up in different time settings. However, their lives converge at one point of time where they become each other’s safe space and source of comfort. The first part of the story traverses through the life of first protagonist Mariam, who lives with her mother in the countryside in a shack made of mud. Young Mariam, a loving and caring girl with a lot of inquisitiveness for learning things. Her tutor, Mullah Faizullah further encourages her curiosity for learning. She is an illegitimate child and her father Jalil only visits them once in a while. From there takes off Mariam’s story about her fondness for her father, miscommunication with her mother, subsequent events leading to her marriage to one of her father’s friends Rasheed and eventually moving to Kabul. Initially doting on her with an expectation that Mariam could give him a son, but later Rasheed’s attitude towards her worsens into abuse when Mariam suffers from continuous miscarriages. Further the book shifts its focus to the story of Young Laila who grew up in the same area where Mariam and Rasheed lived. Laila’s father who was a high school teacher and strongly advocated for education of females had always empowered her to dream high in life. Her mother on the other hand always displayed pride for her older brothers who had joined the fight against the Soviet who were dominating them in Afghanistan. The sudden death of her brothers makes her mother retreat into isolation out of her grief. Laila and her family’s plan go haywire due to a number of unknown eventualities and subsequently resulting in Rasheed acting as a savior to Laila. As the story proceeds, Rasheed marries Laila. Laila gives birth to a daughter and son. Initially, possessing a resentful attitude, Mariam later grows to adore and portray affection for Laila. Rasheed, whose natural attitude of abuse was directed both towards Laila and Mariam, they became each other’s protector and comfort in such times. Thereafter, follows the story of these two women navigating life in an abusive household and world outside where the Taliban ruled and oppression of women intensified manifold. The author has taken a quite descriptive approach where he has elaborated on every event of the protagonists’ lives in a meticulous manner with a lot of significant details. He has devoted equal efforts in initially reflecting on the lives of both Laila and Mariam before they met each other. Advancing ahead, the emotions and bond between Mariam and Laila and also with Laila’s daughter, are depicted with a lot of emotions to an extent that it can be highlighted as the purest bond to ever exist. The entire book was a roller coaster of emotions, actions and reality check. It was a peek into a harsh world where people used to live earlier, and are currently living in Afghanistan. Current, Taliban regime in Afghanistan is quite similar to the erstwhile regime when it comes to repression and maltreatment. A particular part from the book where Laila was about to deliver her second child, however there was only hospital where they lived that treated pregnant women and that place was overcrowded with women about to deliver. Adding to the misery was the substandard infrastructure in the hospital and old instruments which were used for surgeries. Under these heart wrenching circumstances, did women have to give birth. This can be relatable to the present situation in Afghanistan where there is hardly a gynecologist in areas for miles to go, in the midst of which the Taliban has banned nursing and midwifery training and practice. This story, on a general level, has quite profoundly illustrated the hardships faced by women. But what caught my attention significantly was the entire trajectory of Mariam’s life. Her entire life from birth was filled with utter disrespect, gloom, grief, unfulfilled expectations, the advent of Laila in her life might have given her the affection she sought her entire life, but still the misery in her life mostly attributed by the people around her was a breaking point for me. This was more so because I know someone, who has gone through such a fate of gloomy and grief filled life. But the crux is, these people never did anything bad to others, neither did they wish doom upon anyone, then why did they go through so much grief in one lifetime. We have been taught our entire lives to be kind, to be giving, God always has a way of giving back, then how could God not be considerate in their cases. Such events sometimes make me question my entire learnings and philosophies of life. I would rate the story 4 out of 5. I feel reading books and novels is a way of getting out of the real world and seeking refuge in a fictional world where no matter things always end up in favor of protagonists and even in the midst of suffering they tend to find their happy moments. So, if the story focused on some happier parts of their lives more then maybe I could have felt relieved that at least they had some part of happiness. Nevertheless, I would definitely recommend reading this book to my peers and those older than me because I feel a certain degree of maturity is also quintessential while reading and accepting such stories.