Isabella Vaj Books

Mariam is only fifteen when she is sent to Kabul to marry the troubled and bitter Rasheed, who is thirty years her senior. Nearly two decades later, in a climate of growing unrest, tragedy strikes fifteen-year-old Laila, who must leave her home and join Mariam's unhappy household. Laila and Mariam are to find consolation in each other, their friendship to grow as deep as the bond between sisters, as strong as the ties between mother and daughter. With the passing of time comes Taliban rule over Afghanistan, the streets of Kabul loud with the sound of gunfire and bombs, life a desperate struggle against starvation, brutality and fear, the women's endurance tested beyond their worst imaginings. Yet love can move people to act in unexpected ways, lead them to overcome the most daunting obstacles with a startling heroism. In the end it is love that triumphs over death and destruction. A Thousand Splendid Suns is a portrait of a wounded country and a story of family and friendship, of an unforgiving time, an unlikely bond, and an indestructible love.

The unforgettable, heartbreaking story of the unlikely friendship between a wealthy boy and the son of his father's servant, The Kite Runner is a beautifully crafted novel set in a country that is in the process of being destroyed. It is about the power of reading, the price of betrayal, and the possibility of redemption, and it is also about the power of fathers over sons—their love, their sacrifices, their lies. The first Afghan novel to be written in English, The Kite Runner tells a sweeping story of family, love, and friendship against a backdrop of history that has not been told in fiction before, bringing to mind the large canvases of the Russian writers of the nineteenth century. But just as it is old-fashioned in its narration, it is contemporary in its subject-the devastating history of Afghanistan over the last thirty years. As emotionally gripping as it is tender, The Kite Runner is an unusual and powerful debut.

In 1913 an orphan girl boards a steamship bound for Wuhu in South East China. Left in the hands of her soft-hearted but opium-addicted uncle she is delivered to the hall of eternal splendour which, with its painted faces and troubling cries in the night, seems destined to break her spirit. And yet the girl survives and one day hope appears in the unlikely form of a customs inspector, a modest man resistant to the charms of the corrupt world that surrounds him but not to the innocent girl who stands before him.

Surgeon Michael Severin knows all about tragedy: he works with international aid organisations at scenes of disaster all over the world. He is himself is a survivor of an appalling childhood horror, and it is this which drives him to undergo hardship and sometimes danger to do what he can to help. Severin’s stock in trade may be earthquakes and floods, but at home in London, with his beloved wife Caitlin, there at least he is sure of his ground. Respected by his profession, loved both by Caitlin and by his endearingly eccentric foster-father Anthony, Severin’s life is rich and fulfilled – even if he can never quite lay the ghost of his own childhood tragedy. Until something happens which shakes his world more profoundly than any tsunami. Returning from a mission in South America, Severin finds Caitlin dying in their London flat. She has been brutally beaten. From then on, the mysteries deepen as Michael Severin’s secure world begins to fall apart. Who is the strange young woman who turns up unannounced after the killing, and who seems to know more than she should? Who has been sending Caitlin childish drawings of a house in the woods – a house Severin has never seen before? And who really was Caitlin? Did Severin really know her at all? Do we ever really know the people we love?