Freshman students read the novel, A Thousand Splendid Suns, by best-selling author Khaled Hosseini as part of their year-long curriculum in English. Through their literature, they study key questions they are also asking across their interdisciplinary humanities curriculum: Who am I? What is my home?  Who is my community? What is my universe of obligation? 

The novel focuses on the plight of two women in Afghanistan who suffer the hardships of an oppressive, war-torn, male dominated system of political power. They form the tightest of bonds, caring for each other, and making a family out of the shreds of their lives. A Thousand Splendid Suns is the epic story of three generations of Afghan women who are bound together by marriage, family, and a secret past, amid the war-torn streets of modern-day Kabul. Strong-willed Laila, unmarried and pregnant, is forced to marry her older neighbor when her family and home are torn apart. In her new home, she forges an extraordinary and unlikely friendship with Mariam, her husband’s first wife, and together the two women find the hope and strength to raise a new generation.

This year, Khaled Hosseini spoke with our freshman class, answering their thoughtful questions about the issues confronting women and children in the novel and in Afghanistan today. He also answered qustions about what progress--and hope--he sees in the work that is being done today that will affect generations to come.