Chapter 4 Dialogue with Hosseini

1. Q: Your last novel can be said to have helped the world change the perception of Afghanistan, giving millions of readers a preliminary understanding of the people of Afghanistan and their daily real life.Your new novel can be said to cover the important historical events of the past three decades in Afghanistan, from the Soviet invasion to the US-led war to overthrow the Taliban regime.Especially now that you have significant influence, do you feel it is your duty to let the world know about your country? Hosseini: As a writer, the story itself always takes precedence over all other considerations.I do not write with great, holy ideas, much less with special intentions.It is quite a burden for a writer to feel a responsibility to represent his own culture or describe it to readers.My writing stories always expand from a very personal, intimate corner, from a human connection.The fascinating part of this new book for me is that when the world around the two female protagonists is in chaos, their hopes and dreams and all their losses, their inner lives, the special circumstances that brought them together, their The instinct to want to live, and the meaning and power evoked by their relationship.As I write, I witness the story expand itself, becoming more and more ambitious as the pages progress.I knew it would be virtually impossible to tell the stories of these two women without touching on the story of Afghanistan from the 1970s to the post-9/11 era.Intimate personal stories are often entwined with major historical events.Therefore, the chaos in Afghanistan and the scars of the country in recent years have gradually become more than just the background of the story.Gradually, Afghanistan itself—and Kabul, more precisely—featured, in some ways, more in this new novel than in the present.But this is purely based on the needs of the story, not out of a sense of duty to tell the reader all about the motherland.Therefore, after reading this new book, I will be very happy if readers like this story and have a little more understanding and feelings about what happened in Afghanistan in the past thirty years.

2. Question: What kind of response do you hope readers will have after reading your new work? Hosseini: As far as a writer is concerned, I hope that readers can find the same pleasure as I do when reading novels, whether it is the story itself, whether the characters are attractive or not, the bright side they feel and the experience of the protagonist. life.Despite the huge cultural gap, I hope readers can respond to the emotions in this story and empathize with the dreams, hopes, and day-to-day struggles of the protagonist.As an Afghan, I hope readers can try to have a better understanding of Afghanistan, especially Afghan women who have been devastated by war and extremism.It is my hope that this novel will add more depth, nuance, and emotion to the familiar figures of traditional Afghan women in veiled garments walking dusty streets.

3. Q: Please explain, where does the title of your new book come from? Hosseini: The title of this new book comes from a poem about Kabul that was written by Saib-e-Tabrizi, an Afghan poet in the seventeenth century, after visiting Kabul.When I discovered this poem, I was trying to find an English translation of the poem about Kabul, to be used in the sad scene where the character is about to leave the city he loves.I realized that I not only found the emotional verses that fit the book, but also that the phrase "a thousand splendid suns" at the end of the poem is also quite suitable for the theme that the novel wants to express.This poem was translated from Persian by Professor Josephine Davis.

4. Q: You were recently awarded the UNHCR Humanitarian Award and were appointed as the agency's Goodwill Ambassador.Can you briefly describe, what parts of the work have you cooperated with this organization?What is your role as a Goodwill Ambassador? Hosseini: It is a great honor for me to be invited to be a goodwill ambassador and to work with UNHCR.As part of one of the countries with the largest number of refugees in the world, I always keep the issue of refugees in mind.I will be called upon to represent refugees in public and speak out for refugees around the world.For me, it is both my honor and my duty to try to attract the attention of the public and use my popularity and power in the media to speak out for the victims of humanitarian crises, so that people in other parts of the world can pay more attention to refugee-related issues.

In January this year, I had the honor to visit a refugee camp in Chad with UNHCR. This refugee camp accommodates 250,000 refugees from the Darfur region in western Sudan.There I had the opportunity to talk to local refugees, local officials and humanitarian volunteers, and had the opportunity to learn about the crumbling local system.It was an indelible and unforgettable experience for me.I am currently working with the UNHCR on an "Aid Darfur" project.I hope that I will have the opportunity to visit the Afghan refugee camps in Pakistan in the future. 5. Q: Your presentation of the current situation in Afghanistan under the Taliban regime may surprise many readers.For example, the well-known Taliban banned movies and music.But many readers don't know that even if the movie "Titanic" could not be released in Afghanistan, the craze for Titanic was still caused by secretly showing TV and video tapes on the black market.To what extent is the Afghan region controlled by the Taliban regime today?How does popular culture survive tradition?

Hosseini: The most notorious of the Taliban's acts of destroying art and culture is the bombing and damage to the world heritage of Bamiyan Buddha, which had a devastating impact on Afghan culture and traditional art. tapes, music, books and calligraphy, they imprisoned filmmakers, musicians, painters and engravers.Such restrictions forced some artists to give up their work, others to do it in secret.Some built cellars where artists could paint or musicians played, and some pretended to meet and sew but set up book clubs to write novels, such as the Sewing Circles of Herat, a reading group formed by poetess Christina Lamb.Some concealed the Taliban in other clever ways. A famous example was a painter who was forced to remove the human face from his oil painting under the order of the Taliban, but he used watercolor. After being expelled, he washed the watercolor off the work to restore the work.These are just a few examples of the risks artists are taking to escape the Taliban's tight grip on various art forms.

6. Question: When you were writing, what was the difference from the previous novel? Hosseini: When I was writing, no readers were looking forward to it, but after being successful, it was relatively difficult to write a second novel.At the beginning of the writing stage, I will have some doubts and lack of confidence in my ability to write another successful novel, especially since I know that there are quite a few bookstores, my publisher and of course many readers who like me Can't wait to see my new work.That's great, after all you want people to expect your work, but it's also anxiety-provoking.

My wife can attest that I do experience these fears, but I have gradually learned to be more normal.As I pick up the pen and the storyline begins to unfold, I find myself immersing myself in the world of the main characters, Mariam and Lyla, and these worries fade away on their own.The development of the story allows me to ignore the noise around me, and I can focus on the world I created. I find the second novel more ambitious than the first novel.This story is cross-generational, spanning nearly forty-five years, and the story often changes scenes and backgrounds.In comparison, this book incorporates richer characters and multiple perspectives, and brings out more details of the wars and political turmoil that occurred in Afghanistan according to its age.This means that I have to spend more energy to balance the inner character of the characters and the external world that puts pressure on each character and shapes their destiny.

7. Q: Are there any common themes in the two books? Hosseini: In these two novels, the protagonists also face difficulties and are also overwhelmed by external forces.Their lives are constantly shaped by cruel and unforgivable external events, and all the decisions they make about their own lives are shaped by events beyond their control, such as revolutions, wars, extremism, and oppression.For me, these things are even more so in .For example: Amir left Afghanistan and immigrated to the United States for many years. Amir escaped those frightening events and a difficult life, but the two protagonists of this novel, Mariam and Laila, personally experience.For that matter, the events in Afghanistan make Mariam and Laila's lives more difficult than Amir's.

Both novels are two-generation families, so the complex and conflicted relationship between parents and children is a rather important theme.I didn't intend to, but I was quite interested in the subject, so the love and disappointment of parents and children is revealed in the book, and the glory they bring to each other in the end.In a certain respect, the two novels are analogous: mainly a story between father and son, while the other can be regarded as a story between mother and daughter. Overall, I think both novels are stories about love.The protagonists of the story are all redeemed by love and human connection.It tells about the faithful friendship between men, while Li's love shows more rich layers, such as romantic love between men and women, love between parents and children, love for family, family, country and God.In both novels, love is the force that frees the characters from their isolation, allows them to transcend their limitations, exposes their vulnerability, and is the motivator for self-sacrifice and dedication.

8. Q: There is a character in your novel who wishes to come to the United States, as you do now. He thinks that America is a land of gold and generosity.Is this still what many Afghans want from America? Hosseini: I think the United States and the Americans are complicated for the Afghans.On the one hand, the United States is a bastion of hope for Afghanistan.I believe that the notion that American troops will pack up and leave has terrified many Afghans because they fear the chaos, anarchy and extremism that may follow.On the other hand, there are mixed emotions of disappointment and disenchantment.When the Soviet Union left and factional fighting destroyed much of Kabul, it was, I think, slightly poignant how fellow Afghans felt they had been abandoned by the West, especially the US.Beyond that, rightly or wrongly, there is a feeling brewing in Afghanistan that Americans will not keep their promises.When the US troops came to Afghanistan after 9.11, ordinary Afghan people hoped to greatly improve the quality of life, public security and economic conditions.And many Afghans feel that their expectations have not been met.They argue that the war in Iraq that followed took away attention, troops, and resources, leaving Afghanistan completely ignored.However, I think some Afghans still hold out hope for an alliance with the United States, and many, like the protagonists in the book, still see the United States as a country worth aspiring to, a land of opportunity and hope. 9. Question: The women in your story are oppressed because of their gender in their hometown or society. Is this oppression especially serious in Muslim society?In response to this situation, what do you think should be done and can be done? Hosseini: This is not a complex question that can be answered easily.Admittedly, in some Islamic countries, including mine, the attitude towards women is always frustrating.And the evidence is everywhere.When Afghanistan was ruled by the Taliban, women were unable to get an education, work, move freely, receive proper medical care, etc.However, I want to distance myself from the popular notion in some circles that the Western world can and should put pressure on these Muslim countries for gender equality.While I think this is a very good, even noble idea, I see it as simplistic and impractical.This approach ignores, directly or indirectly, the complexities and nuances of the societies it addresses stemming from their respective traditions, customs, political institutions, social structures and fundamental beliefs. I believe change must start from within, that is, with the organization of Muslim society itself.In Afghanistan, I think more moderates are needed to support women's rights, other than that the chances of success are slim to none.When Islamic leaders in Afghanistan or elsewhere deny the reality of women's oppression and avoid their own problems by pointing to examples of women being abused in the West, or worse justifying oppression in terms of basic teachings of Sharia law I always feel offended when women are right.It is my hope that twenty-first-century Islamic leaders will change their outdated views on gender issues and open themselves to more moderate and innovative approaches.I understand that these ideas may sound naive, especially in a country like Afghanistan, where Islamic fundamentalism has dominated and silenced moderates.However I think that changing from the Islamic society itself is the only way out. 10. Q: A book is centered on the friendship between two men, and the story is narrated from a male point of view.In your new book, the story focuses on the relationship between two female characters and alternately tells the story from their respective points of view.Why did you decide to write from a female point of view this time?What attracted you to these unique female characters and their relationships? Hosseini: After I finished, I was fascinated by the idea of ​​writing a story about women in Afghanistan.The first novel is a male-dominated story, in which all the characters are male except for Amir's wife Soraya.There's a huge aspect of Afghan society that I haven't touched in, and I think that whole section is pretty storytelling.After all, so much has happened to Afghan women over the past three decades, especially after the Soviets withdrew and factional fighting broke out.As a result of the civil war, women in Afghanistan have had their human rights violated on the basis of their gender, such as being raped or forced into marriage.They were either taken as trophies or pushed into prostitution.When the Taliban regime was established, the Taliban imposed many inhumane restrictions on women, not only restricting their freedom of movement and expression, prohibiting work and education, but also harassing, humiliating and beating them. In the spring of 23, I went to Kabul, and I still remember seeing women in traditional veiled clothing sitting on street corners, surrounded by four, five, even six children, begging passers-by for change.I remember watching them walking down the street in pairs, followed by their ragged children, and wondering where life had taken them?What would be their dreams, hopes and desires?Have they ever been in love?Who are their husbands?What have they lost in the two decades of war that has spread across Afghanistan? I have spoken to many women in Kabul and their stories are real and heartbreaking.For example, a mother of six told me that her husband, a traffic cop, only makes forty dollars a month and hasn't been paid for six months.She had to borrow money from friends or relatives to make ends meet, but they stopped lending her money because she couldn't pay it back.Therefore, she can only take her children to beg on different street corners in Kabul every day.I talked to another woman who said that the widow next door to her, who couldn't bear to die from the famine, put rat poison in bread and fed it to her children, then ate it herself.I also met a girl whose father was paralyzed in the lower half of her body from a shotgun, and she could only beg with her mother on the streets of Kabul from sunrise to sunset. As I began to write, I found myself thinking constantly of these resilient Afghan women.While they weren't necessarily the inspiration for my characters in Laila's or Mariam's stories, their voices, faces, and gritty survival stories haunted me, and a large part of my inspiration for this novel was From the collective spiritual strength of Afghan women. 11. Question: It has been adopted by quite a few book clubs, and quite a few cities or communities have included this book as part of the public reading plan.Why do you think this is happening?What do you think people can take away from your story? Hosseini: There are quite a few layers, providing readers with a discussion of cultural, religious, political, historical and literary perspectives.But I guess this book will be welcomed by book clubs, largely because it is a story close to human nature.Because the themes of friendship, betrayal, mistakes, redemption, and the relationship between father and son are universal and not just in Afghanistan, this book has crossed cultural, racial, religious, and gender divides with readers of all backgrounds. Readers resonate.I think the reader is responding to the various emotions in this book. 12. Question: The film adaptation has been filmed in China, when is it expected to be completed?How do you feel about adapting your first novel into a film? Hosseini: The movie was shot in December 26.As far as I know, the movie will be released in the fall of this year, maybe in November. Making a film is a surreal experience.Writing fiction is a deeply personal and lonely enterprise.Filmmaking is all about a collaborative process.So it was quite interesting and strange to see a lot of people running around trying to translate my very personal creations into a visual experience for the general public.It was quite a unique experience seeing my ideas interpreted visually. Besides, I've learned that not everything I write on the page can be adapted to the big screen.Inevitably, there will still be a line between book and film.But for me, what matters is not how similar the film is to my work, but how the filmmaker combines the advantages of the two through art, presenting the finished product of writing with the visual power of the film, and achieving another It is an art form that completely breaks away from the original novel mode, using visuals as the form of expression, while faithfully retaining the emotional experience and feelings that made this novel attractive in the first place.