Khaled Hosseini's second novel, A Thousand Splendid Suns, takes place in various locations throughout the Middle East, including Herat, a city in Afghanistan, Gul Daman, a village just outside of Herat, Kabul the capital of Afghanistan, and Murree, a city in Pakistan.
The settings are incredibly important to the story because the story follows two Muslim women--Mariam, who is forced into a conservative marriage and lifestyle, and Laila, who is much more liberal and less constrained by conservative values or expectations--and the two women are in constant conflict with their conservative surroundings, having to cover themselves, walk in pairs, and deal with men as the authority in their lives.
Had the novel been written in some place else--say, London?--then the conservative atmosphere would be lost and Mariam and Laila would have much different obstacles to endure. However, since the novel does take place throughout Afghanistan and Pakistan, the conservative values of those societies are then quite important as they shape the lives of the women and how they function in society.
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