What is the story A Thousand Splendid Suns all about? What does the phrase A Thousand Splendid Suns mean?

A Thousand Splendid Suns is a story of three generations of Afghan women and their extraordinary perseverance. It is set in the war-torn neighbourhoods of Kabul in the 1990s. When a fight uproots her family, the lovely Laila is forced to seek refuge, first in her own home and then in the arms of an elderly neighbour.

Soon after, she forms an unusual and odd bond with Mariam, her new husband’s first wife. The two ladies seek hope and the prospect of a better future, uniting their strength to oppose a tyrannical society.

The phrase ”A Thousand Splendid Suns” is explained at the end of the novel in a quote. “Miriam is in Laila’s own heart, where she glows with the bursting light of a thousand suns.”

This quote is explained as Mariam’s continuous presence in Laila’s life even after death, implying a brilliance in life larger than the sun yet only equivalent to a thousand suns.