Dua Lipa's SERVICE95 Book Club Announces February's Monthly Read: 'A Thousand Splendid Suns' by Khaled Hosseini

Dua Lipa announced February's Monthly Read from her Service95 Book Club will be A Thousand Splendid Suns by New York Times bestselling author Kahled Housseini. The Service95 Book Club will offer exclusive content from Dua and Kahled throughout the month on service95.com and across socials.

Dua shares, “I first read A Thousand Splendid Suns just after the return of the Taliban in 2021 when Afghanistan dominated headlines around the world. If we need any reminder of why we should stand in solidarity with Afghan women now more than ever, this book is surely it. It's a really intense story of a world we all hoped was far behind us – and yet it's more relevant than ever to understand the lives of women under the Taliban.”

“With Khaled Hosseini's great gift for storytelling, this book soars on many levels,” Dua continues. “It's an illuminating story of the cultural and political history of Afghanistan, rich with the textures of daily life. What stood out for me as much as the oppression it details is that this story is infused with love – between fractured families, teenage lovers, and the heroic characters of Mariam and Laila, whose friendship resonated with me so deeply.”

“Yes, at times, this story is dark but it is also enlightening, offering a vision for what Afghanistan still may one day become,” Dua says. “As Laila's father tells her, ‘You can be anything you want Laila…And when this war is over Afghanistan is going to need you as much as its men, maybe even more.'”

“This one is for the women of Afghanistan,” Dua concludes.

This month's Service95 Book Club content will feature an author Q&A between Dua and Khaled, a video sharing insight into Khaled's writing process, his recommended reading list, and a playlist curated by Khaled.

To run alongside February's monthly read, Service95 will dedicate a special issue to the women of Afghanistan including a feature about the women who are undertaking underground resistance against the Taliban and an exclusive book extract from My Pen Is The Wing Of A Bird, a compilation of fiction short stories by Afghan women writers.

The newsletter will spotlight 26-year-old Afghan refugee rights campaigner Summia Tora, who runs the Dosti Network – an organization that helps Afghan refugees access help, information and support – and will continue with an interview with Afghan rapper Sonita Alizadeh, a 27-year-old who escaped being sold into marriage at age 10 and 16 and now lives in the US, campaigning against child marriage though her viral rap music. The issue will wrap with a curated list of organizations to support and literary materials to aid in learning about the situation for women in Afghanistan.

Dua's Service95 Book Club is the latest offering from her Service95 platform, which also consists of the At Your Service podcast and the flagship Service95 newsletter, which has been praised by The Guardian as "some of the most thought-provoking short-form cultural writing you can find." The podcast has been lauded in publications including The Sunday Times, Vogue and Vulture, and was named one of the Best Podcasts of 2022 by Spotify who said, “Dua is an incredibly thoughtful interviewer with a genuine interest in people, social movements, and the arts.”

You can follow Service95 on socials and YouTube to get the latest, and subscribe to the newsletter here to stay in the loop on upcoming monthly reads.

About Khaled Hosseini

Khaled Hosseini was born in Kabul, Afghanistan, in 1965. His father was a diplomat and his mother taught Farsi and History in Kabul. In 1976, his father's job took the family to Paris. They were scheduled to return to Kabul in 1980, but the communist coup and the invasion of the Soviet army meant they fled to San Jose, California. Here they lived on welfare and food stamps, while Hosseini's father took multiple jobs. Hosseini graduated from high school and later completed his residency at Cedars-Sinai Hospital. He practiced medicine from 1996-2004.

Today, Hosseini is one of the most widely read and beloved authors. His novels The Kite Runner, A Thousand Splendid Suns and And The Mountains Echoed have sold over 55 million copies all over the world. The Kite Runner was a major film and a Book of the Decade, chosen by The Times, Daily Telegraph and Guardian.

A Thousand Splendid Suns went back to press almost daily in its first week on sale and spent 21 weeks on The New York Times paperback bestseller list. Hosseini is a Goodwill Ambassador for UNHCR, the UN Refugee Agency, and founder of The Khaled Hosseini Foundation, a not-for-profit organization providing humanitarian assistance to the people of Afghanistan.

About Dua Lipa

3x GRAMMY and 6x Brit Award-winning global pop powerhouse Dua Lipa has returned with “Houdini” – the highly anticipated track following her 2020 smash Future Nostalgia.

The euphoric club-ready single went straight to #1 on the UK Airplay charts, drew in over 12 million YouTube views within 24 hours and garnered immediate praise across the board from Rolling Stone and Billboard, who said the track is “an immediate blast” to Pitchfork and Vogue who called it “a pop masterclass.”

“Houdini” follows Dua's summer hit "Dance The Night" from the box office sensation Barbie, which landed on the Oscars shortlist and earned nominations at the Golden Globes, Critics' Choice Awards and the GRAMMYs for Song of the Year and Best Song Written for Visual Media.

Dua's certified platinum sophomore album Future Nostalgia solidified her position as both a critical success and top radio performer. The GRAMMY-nominated record was the longest running top 10 album by a female artist on the Billboard 200 in 2021, and spawned multiple worldwide hit singles, with “Levitating” earning certified diamond status and the title of Billboard's No. 1 Hot 100 Song of 2021.

Dua has found superstar status on stage and off, thanks to her many passions outside of music. 2022 saw Dua launch Service95, a global style, culture and society editorial platform that now comprises a weekly newsletter, the Service95 book club and the Dua Lipa: At Your Service podcast, which has been lauded by The Sunday Times and The Guardian, and was named one of the Best Podcasts of 2022 by Spotify.

Having graced every major fashion magazine worldwide from Vogue and Elle to W and Dazed, Dua added "designer" to her resume in 2023 when she co-designed Versace's "La Vacanza" collection alongside Donatella Versace herself, which Vogue deemed "the hottest collaboration of the summer."

Dua's eponymous 2017 debut album is certified platinum, spawned six platinum tracks, and made her the first female artist in Brit Awards history to pick up five nominations in a single year. Dua has a total of 10 GRAMMY nominations, with three wins for Best Pop Vocal Album, Best New Artist and Best Dance Recording. Across platforms globally, she has amassed over 38 billion streams and holds the record for having the top two most streamed albums by a female artist of all time on Spotify.

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