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December Book Club

Monday, December 15, 2008
7:00 PM

Location: Silver Diner
3200 Wilson Boulevard
Arlington, VA 22201
Metro: Clarendon (Orange Line)
Phone: (703) 812-8600
Silver Diner Website
Map & Directions

Our selection is: "A Thousand Splendid Suns" by Khaled Hosseini

Read a review or buy the book online here
Note: The book comes out in paperback on November 25.

From Publishers Weekly
Starred Review. Afghan-American novelist Hosseini follows up his bestselling The Kite Runner with another searing epic of Afghanistanin 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.

For more information about the book club click here or email bookclub.at.dchoos.dot.org.