Last year I read The Kite Runner by the same author. It was great, minus a couple of icky parts that dealt with rape of a small child. The Kite Runner showed sides of Afghanistan from a male point of view and mostly decades ago.
A Thousand SPlendid Suns focuses more on the plight of women in Afghanistan and spans a time that leads into the now. The focus is on two women in particular and how their dissimilarities truly prove how similar they are. It gives you an insight to the hardships faced during the civil war, the war with Russia and the aftermath of those conflicts. It is very well written with the ability to draw a picture in your mind, which is what I enjoy most about a good book. I like to finish a well written book feeling as if A: I watched a really good movie or B: I was actually a participant in the book. And this book did that for me.