Mariam is only fifteen when she is sent to Kabul to marry Rasheed. Nearly two decades later, a friendship grows between Mariam and a local teenager, Laila, as strong as the ties between mother and daughter. When the Taliban take over, life becomes a desperate struggle against starvation, brutality and fear. Yet love can move a person to act in unexpected ways, and lead them to overcome the most daunting obstacles with a startling heroism. The sense of longing evoked in Khaled Hosseini's Alf shams sati'a is compelling and universal: the passionate search for love, family, home, acceptance, a healthy society, and a promising future, regardless of the obstacles. Like The Kite Runner, this novel transcends boundaries and illuminates the people and culture of a region that has been reluctantly thrust into the international spotlight. Above all, however, Alf shams sati'a is a stunning literary accomplishment.

Author Biography

Khaled Hosseini was born in Kabul, Afghanistan and moved to the United States in 1980. His first novel, The Kite Runner, was an international bestseller, published in over fifty territories. In 2006 he was named a US goodwill envoy to the United Nations Refugee Agency. A Thousand Splendid Suns, his second novel, was published in 2007. The same year, he founded The Khaled Hosseini Foundation to provide humanitarian assistance to the people of Afghanistan. He lives in northern California.