Facts about A Thousand Splendid Suns

1. 06

   Published in 2007, A Thousand Splendid Suns debuted at number one on the New York Times bestseller list.

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2. 05

   Both central characters in A Thousand Splendid Suns are women whose lives are shaped by forced marriage and domestic violence under Taliban rule in Afghanistan.

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3. 04

   Hosseini's title for A Thousand Splendid Suns derives from a 17th-century poem about Kabul written by Persian poet Saib-e-Tabrizi.

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4. 03

   Over 4 million copies of A Thousand Splendid Suns have been sold worldwide since its 2007 publication, making it one of the best-selling novels of the 21st century.

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5. 02

   The novel's two protagonists, Mariam and Laila, span nearly 50 years of Afghan history from the 1960s through early 2000s in A Thousand Splendid Suns.

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6. 01

   Afghan author Khaled Hosseini published A Thousand Splendid Suns in 2007, becoming his second novel after The Kite Runner in 2003.

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