A Thousand Splendid Suns by Khaled Hosseini

" One could not count the moons that shimmer on her roofs, or the thousand splendid suns that hide behind her walls."

Khaled Hosseini's "A thousand Splendid Suns" is a story of friendship between two most unlikely women; Mariam, a 'harami' an illegitimate daughter of a wealthy man who is ashamed of her existence and Laila, a beloved daughter of an intellectual who encouraged her to pursue an education. Their friendship is the only light in a life of servitude and humiliation in a household ruled by a cruel husband and a country terrorized by the Taliban.
Just like the "Kite Runner" the story is framed within the greater canvas of the country's history and as the story unfolds the reader is drawn to the very interior of the household and to its consuming drama. The plight of women "to endure...its all we have" and how the gift of friendship found in the most unlikely place could be the "sun that shines with the bursting radiance of a thousand suns."