Khaled Hosseini had great success with his previous best-seller, The Kite Runner. In a similar vein, A Thousand Splendid Suns shows the fallout that Afghanistan's violent history has had on individuals, especially its women. Hosseini depicts the lives of Laila and Mariam, and their struggle against society and the Taliban.
They are both married to a womanizing shoemaker, Rasheed, who constantly is abusing them physically and verbally. Initially, Mariam, Rasheed's first wife, is jealous of Laila, but she soon realizes that she is in desperate need of a friend.
Khaled Hosseini's purpose is to show the hardships of women in Afghanistan and all they must endure in the household as well as society. At first, when the two women meet, Hosseini conveys the resistance between them, but they realize that there is no way they can survive without a trusted companion.
