This was an amazing book! And although Hosseini's Kite Runner received more accolades, A Thousand Splendid Suns blew me away. For Hosseini to get inside the head of women in Afganistan during the war with Russia was really amazing. His writing is so detailed, I felt like I was there, in the house with these women, suffering along with them. This book was sufferable and violent towards women in particular, but not for the thrill of violence (but is the only reason I could not give it 5 stars). Hosseini has such a gift for writing, and this historical fiction was just amazing. While not my normal genre, this book is really one that any woman, who is living a free life should read.