A Thousand Splendid Suns（灿烂千阳：追风筝的人最新作品）

A Thousand Splendid Suns is a breathtaking story set against the volatile events of Afghanistan's last thirty years-from the Soviet invasion to the reign of the Taliban to post-Taliban rebuilding--that puts the violence, fear, hope, and faith of this country in intimate, human terms. It is a tale of two generations of characters brought jarringly together by the tragic sweep of war, where personal lives--the struggle to survive, raise a family, find happiness--are inextricable from the history playing out around them.
　　Propelled by the same storytelling instinct that made TheKiteRunner a beloved classic, A Thousand Splendid Suns is at once a remarkable chronicle of three decades of Afghan history and a deeply moving account of family and friendship. It is a striking, heart-wrenching novel of an unforgiving time, an unlikely friendship, and an indestructible love--a stunning accomplishment.

追风筝的孩子作者，卡勒德?胡赛尼，继《追风筝的孩子》之后，被高度引颈期待的最新作品－《灿烂千阳》(A Thousand Splendid Suns)，终于问世！

《灿烂千阳》同样以阿富汗的战乱为背景，藉两个女主角的遭遇反映苏联入侵和内战的残酷，对塔利班（Taliban）政权的暴政也大加着墨。全书时空跨越三十年，用细腻笔触描绘阿富汗传统家族专制的宗法制度，妇女必须苦苦依赖着父亲、丈夫，甚至儿子才有社会地位，让读者感同身受体会乱世阿富汗人的苦难，他们的坚忍、希望和追求真爱的勇气。故事中私生女玛莉安自小与母亲相依为命，十五岁母亲上吊自杀，父亲安排远嫁喀布尔四十多岁的鞋匠拉希德。由于丈夫重视子嗣，玛莉安几经流产后，因无法生子而长期活在家暴阴影下。

另一位少女莱拉，在喀布尔成长的童年充满战乱，于青梅竹马的恋人举家逃难前献身给他。父母死于炮火，十四岁的莱拉举目无亲，别无选择被迫嫁给拉希德。与拉希德结婚十八年的玛莉安最初与莱拉水火不容，但大环境烽火连天，共同面对生活的困顿和凶暴的丈夫，两人逐渐建立姊妹情谊，甚至产生近似母女的感情。后续发生凶杀、逃亡、牺牲与救赎饱富戏剧张力的情节，扣人心弦。

《灿烂千阳》再度展现胡赛尼笔下苦情催泪功力，尽管生命充满苦痛与辛酸，但每一段悲痛的情节中都能让人见到希望的阳光。女性对家人的爱与牺牲自我的高贵情操，比《追风筝的孩子》背叛与赎罪的主题更能打动人心。只要依凭爱的回忆，就能让苦难中的女性活过沧桑。新书能否刷新《追风筝的孩子》盘踞《纽约时报》畅销书榜一○三周纪录，值得拭目以待。

Book Description
After 103 weeks on the New York Times bestseller list and with four million copies of The Kite Runner shipped, Khaled Hosseini returns with a beautiful, riveting, and haunting novel that confirms his place as one of the most important literary writers today.

Propelled by the same superb instinct for storytelling that made The Kite Runner a beloved classic, A Thousand Splendid Suns is at once an incredible chronicle of thirty years of Afghan history and a deeply moving story of family, friendship, faith, and the salvation to be found in love.

Born a generation apart and with very different ideas about love and family, Mariam and Laila are two women brought jarringly together by war, by loss and by fate. As they endure the ever escalating dangers around them-in their home as well as in the streets of Kabul-they come to form a bond that makes them both sisters and mother-daughter to each other, and that will ultimately alter the course not just of their own lives but of the next generation. With heart-wrenching power and suspense, Hosseini shows how a woman's love for her family can move her to shocking and heroic acts of self-sacrifice, and that in the end it is love, or even the memory of love, that is often the key to survival.

A stunning accomplishment, A Thousand Splendid Suns is a haunting, heartbreaking, compelling story of an unforgiving time, an unlikely friendship, and an indestructible love.

Amazon.com
It's difficult to imagine a harder first act to follow than The Kite Runner: a debut novel by an unknown writer about a country many readers knew little about that has gone on to have over four million copies in print worldwide. But when preview copies of Khaled Hosseini's second novel, A Thousand Splendid Suns, started circulating at Amazon.com, readers reacted with a unanimous enthusiasm that few of us could remember seeing before. As special as The Kite Runner was, those readers said, A Thousand Splendid Suns is more so, bringing Hosseini's compassionate storytelling and his sense of personal and national tragedy to a tale of two women that is weighted equally with despair and grave hope.
We wanted to spread the word on the book as widely, and as soon, as we could. See below for an exclusive excerpt from A Thousand Splendid Suns and early reviews of the book from some of our top customer reviewers.
　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　--The Editors

From Publishers Weekly
Afghan-American novelist Hosseini follows up his bestselling The Kite Runner with another searing epic of Afghanistan in turmoil. The story covers three decades of anti-Soviet jihad, civil war and Taliban tyranny through the lives of two women. Mariam is the scorned illegitimate daughter of a wealthy businessman, forced at age 15 into marrying the 40-year-old Rasheed, who grows increasingly brutal as she fails to produce a child. Eighteen later, Rasheed takes another wife, 14-year-old Laila, a smart and spirited girl whose only other options, after her parents are killed by rocket fire, are prostitution or starvation. Against a backdrop of unending war, Mariam and Laila become allies in an asymmetrical battle with Rasheed, whose violent misogyny—"There was no cursing, no screaming, no pleading, no surprised yelps, only the systematic business of beating and being beaten"—is endorsed by custom and law. Hosseini gives a forceful but nuanced portrait of a patriarchal despotism where women are agonizingly dependent on fathers, husbands and especially sons, the bearing of male children being their sole path to social status. His tale is a powerful, harrowing depiction of Afghanistan, but also a lyrical evocation of the lives and enduring hopes of its resilient characters. (May)

From Bookmarks Magazine
A Thousand Splendid Suns raises inevitable comparisons to The Kite Runner, which sat on The New York Times best seller list for 103 weeks. Most critics agreed that Khaled Hosseini's second novel is as devastating, if not even more powerful, than his first. A natural, if not always the most eloquent or subtle, storyteller, Hosseini gives voice to two women trying to survive in a despotic household while caught up in the throes of war. Most critics thought that Hosseini successfully evokes his female characters' inner lives—not an easy feat for a male author—while a few observed that Mariam and Laila fail to resonate emotionally. Others noted some melodrama and predictability. Despite these quibbles, the novel offers a chilling, all-too-real portrait Afghan life. "It is, for all its shortcomings, a brave, honorable, big-hearted book" (Washington Post).

From Booklist
Hosseini's follow-up to his best-selling debut, The Kite Runner (2003) views the plight of Afghanistan during the last half-century through the eyes of two women. Mariam is the illegitimate daughter of a maid and a businessman, who is given away in marriage at 15 to Rasheed, a man three times her age; their union is not a loving one. Laila is born to educated, liberal parents in Kabul the night the Communists take over Afghanistan. Adored by her father but neglected in favor of her older brothers by her mother, Laila finds her true love early on in Tariq, a thoughtful, chivalrous boy who lost a leg in an explosion. But when tensions between the Communists and the mujahideen make the city unsafe, Tariq and his family flee to Pakistan. A devastating tragedy brings Laila to the house of Rasheed and Mariam, where she is forced to make a horrific choice to secure her future. At the heart of the novel is the bond between Mariam and Laila, two very different women brought together by dire circumstances. Unimaginably tragic, Hosseini's magnificent second novel is a sad and beautiful testament to both Afghani suffering and strength. Readers who lost themselves in The Kite Runner will not want to miss this unforgettable follow-up.
　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　Kristine Huntley

Book Dimension
length: (cm)22.4 　　　 　　　　　 　　　　　 width:(cm)15.2

Khaled Hosseini was born in Kabul, Afghanistan, and moved to the United States in 1980. His first novel, The Kite Runner, was an international bestseller, published in 34 countries. In 2006 he received the Humanitarian Award from the United Nations Refugee Agency and was named a U.S. goodwill envoy to that agency. He lives in northern California.

现年四十二岁的胡赛尼，父亲为阿富汗外交官，1980年苏联入侵阿富汗，全家逃到美国寻求政治庇护。《追风筝的孩子》让原本学医的胡赛尼名利双收，接连获得多项创作／出版新人奖，2006年并获联合国难民署的人道奖，胡赛尼受任命为难民署的亲善特使。《追》书席卷全球四十三国发烧，好莱坞也正改拍电影。