Mariam is the bastard child of a well-off man and her servant mother. She is raised in a little hut on the outskirts of town and sees her father weekly, when he promises her the moon but never quite delivers. As a child, Mariam doesn’t understand the social stigma attached to her and her mother, and how her father’s wives want nothing to do with her, they don’t even wish to acknowledge her existence. When her mother suddenly dies, Mariam has no choice but to move in with her father, his wives and their children. Hen-pecked by the women he’s married, Mariam’s father quickly agrees to sell her into marriage to a much older man who takes her from the only childhood home she’s ever known to the large city of Kabul. A child bride, Mariam does her best to please her new husband, but it is a marriage that quickly deteriorates into punishment, both verbal and physical.
Some years later, when Mariam has failed to produce children, her husband takes advantage of the unstable conditions in Kabul to marry the orphaned daughter of his next door neighbour. Together the two women must bond and overthrow the shackles of their loveless marriage to a tyrannical old man and reach for freedom in a country torn apart by civil war.
A beautiful story, wrenching at times with its brutal detail of life for women under the Taliban, A Thousand Splendid Sons will have you falling in love with Kabul and its people, rooting for the heroines and their fight for freedom at any cost.
What my fellow book clubbers had to say:
To a one, we all loved this book and were very happy for the opportunity to read it. Many questions about the Islamic faith and Afghanistan were brought forth and patiently answered by F, who shared her knowledge of the faith and region with us. I for one, love learning about new cultures, so it was a treat to not only read this book, but listen to F share her experiences with the group. One of my favourite book club meetings to date!
Till next time, happy reading!
L 
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