1000 suns

I just finished Khaled Hosseini's A Thousand Splendid Suns and since I was reading it at my desk (it's a slow Friday afternoon ever since my meeting for next week got moved to the following week), I have a headache from trying not to cry. Crying at your desk is usually frowned upon even if the chances that anyone is going to find you are slim.

Telling the tale of 2 women growing up in beleaguered Afghanistan, the book is poignantly moving rather than the shocking brutality of Khaled's first novel, The Kite Runner. I'm not saying that his depiction of the seemingly never-ending rounds of war aren't shocking and disturbing; there just isn't that one slap you across the face scene that made Kite Runner so difficult. The courage of these 2 women is astonishing, amazing, and heart-rending. They show the bravery that comes with being a mother - something that women everywhere hope that they have but don't have to test.

It's easy to see how with each new regime there would be hope; only have hope dashed as each one was as bad as the last. It's hard to imagine anyone living through those conditions for so long and still managing to be hopeful in the end. Because in the end, the story really is one of hope. Hope that things will be better. Hope that all the sorrow won't be for nothing. Hope for recovery, love, laughter and regrowth.