An Emotional Journey across Cultures by Kimberly

An Emotional Journey across Cultures by Kimberly - July 2013 Scholarship Essay

The best book I ever read for school was A Thousand Splendid Suns by Khaled Hosseini.  Besides being an engaging and interesting story, the book ripped my heart out with its beautiful sorrow, all the while opening my eyes to a world vastly different from my own.
A Thousand Splendid Suns is a tale of abuse, friendship, and love, centered around the oppression of women in the Middle East.  Prior to reading the novel, while I was aware that Middle Eastern women did not have many of the rights women in America do, I did not realize how bad their lives were.  In the story, the reader encounters an abusive husband, so intent on having a male heir that he punishes his wife for giving birth to a daughter, eventually nearly killing the wife.
In addition to broadening my world view, A Thousand Splendid Suns touched me in a way I had never before experienced.  It is, above all, a story of friendships forged in difficult times, and the selflessness shown by the friends in the book is both mind-blowing and tear jerking.
I have not read any other book for school which made me cry, but Hosseini’s masterpiece did.  It is beautifully written, full of raw images and emotions which leave the reader breathless.  It was amazing.