Khaled Hosseini. A Thousand Splendid Suns. New York: Penguin, 2007. Print.

I recall reading Chekhov’s short story “A Slander” years ago. In that tale, a rumor circulates that a man has been unfaithful to his wife. When the rumor gets around to the wife, she accuses her husband of being a Muslim and an Infidel.

In recent years such politically correct pieces like Huston Smith’s “The Five Pillars of Islam” would have us believe that Muslims are self-controlled respecters of women. Hosseini’s A Thousand Splendid Suns debunks that myth.

The author’s other novel, The Kite Runner, had a plot that circled around marital infidelity, racism, and homosexual rape. Hosseini’s follow-up novel, also mostly set in Kabul, Afghanistan, tells the story of two women who both become wives of the same man. Islam, of course, allows up to four wives at a time. A Thousand Splendid Suns is a harrowing story of such a marriage in contemporary Kabul.

The story begins with Mariam who lives in a shack with her mother on the outskirts of Herat. They are literal outcasts. Her mother had been a housekeeper of a prominent businessman until she became pregnant. The father does visit Mariam weekly, but he is reluctant to officially acknowledge her. As soon as she is old enough, he marries her off to a widowed shoemaker in Kabul.

Many years later, after their only son dies, her husband Rasheed marries Laila, a young and blonde native of Kabul whose parents have been killed by a random artillery shell in all the fighting. A backdrop to all the family drama is the political intrigue and civil wars in country. The story begins in 1973 shortly before the long-ruling king is ousted. After this comes Communism, the Soviet invasion, the post-Soviet factional fighting, the Taliban, and even 9-11 (though the death of Massood is more significant to the people of Afghanistan).

At first Mariam and Laila are rivals, as would likely be the case in most polygamous marriages. However, they become friends as they begin to understand how they have both suffered under Rasheed’s tyranny. Both are frequently beaten—Rasheed justifies it from a verse in the Koran. Mariam cannot understand why they both have to wear burqas and cannot go out unless accompanied by him, yet he keeps a stash of pornographic magazines in a drawer.

Hosseini is a very good story teller. We sympathize with both women. The war and the family strife eventually send them away to Pakistan where there is potential for a new life. But they cannot stay away from Kabul for very long. Even though it has been wasted by war, famine, and drought, it is their home. More than once the book quotes a Farsi poet who compares the homes of Kabul to “a thousand splendid suns.”

In spite of all the evil and division in the land, there is beauty. Here is a sense of hope. As far as I know, Hosseini identifies as a Muslim, but the imagery at the end is straight out of Christianity. The sacrifice of Mariam saves another, one who is guilty—so the sacrifice of the Son of Mariam (Mary in English) saves all who would believe in Him from their guilt. As Jesus might say, “You are not far from the Kingdom of God.” (Mark 12:34)