Khaled Hosseini is the author of A Thousand Splendid Suns, And The Mountains Echoed, and The Kite Runner. These are three of my all-time favorite stories. To me, what makes them so special is the fantastic use of imagery. It enables the words to fly off the page into scenes you can see, hear, and smell as if you're living beside these characters in their present.
So today I want to share some of the magic-
“One could not count the moons that shimmer on her roofs,
Or the thousand splendid suns that hide behind her walls.”
― A Thousand Splendid Suns
“Behind every trial and sorrow that He makes us shoulder, God has a reason.”
― A Thousand Splendid Suns
“And the past held only this wisdom: that love was a damaging mistake, and its accomplice, hope, a treacherous illusion. And whenever those twin poisonous flowers began to sprout in the parched land of that field, Mariam uprooted them. She uprooted them and ditched them before they took hold.”
― A Thousand Splendid Suns
A Thousand Splendid Suns may be my favorite of the three because I can empathize with the two main characters, both of whom are women, on such a personal level. I often think we lose sight of how lucky many of us are-as women-to have been born where we were. A Thousand Splendid Suns is so extraordinarily eye-opening that you'll be forever changed and forever sobbing (in a good way).
“I wondered if that was how forgiveness budded; not with the fanfare of epiphany, but with pain gathering its things, packing up, and slipping away unannounced in the middle of the night.”
― The Kite Runner
“It was only a smile, nothing more. It didn't make everything all right. It didn't make ANYTHING all right. Only a smile. A tiny thing. A leaf in the woods, shaking in the wake of a startled bird's flight. But I'll take it. With open arms. Because when spring comes, it melts the snow one flake at a time, and maybe I just witnessed the first flake melting."
― The Kite Runner
“There is a way to be good again...”
― The Kite Runner
Okay, I'm stopping here because otherwise I won't be able to. The Kite Runner is up to the brim with this stuff. Like I said...MAGIC.
“I suspect the truth is that we are waiting, all of us, against insurmountable odds, for something extraordinary to happen to us.”
― And the Mountains Echoed
“They say, Find a purpose in your life and live it. But, sometimes, it is only after you have lived that you recognize your life had a purpose, and likely one you never had in mind.”
― And The Mountains Echoed
“Out beyond ideas
of wrongdoing and right doing,
there is a field.
I’ll meet you there.”
― And the Mountains Echoed
Finally, And The Mountains Echoed is Hosseini's third yet equally as brilliant novel. Maybe it's just me, but seriously? MAGICAL.
In case you haven't already inferred, I HIGHLY recommend these profound stories.
They just might adjust your perspective. And I promise, it will be MAGICAL.
