I hesitated to pick this book up because I thought it would be a slow starter, as so much literary fiction is. I knew it had to be worthy of all the reviews I'd heard, but so often this type of book (I can't help but think of them as Oprah books)spends a great deal of time setting the scene and doesn't jump right into the story. But with this book, I was hooked from the very first page. The author writes beautifully yet without pretension. The glimpse we see of life in Afghanistan, both past and present, is utterly fascinating. The characters seem so real that it is hard to believe at times that this book is fiction. The story has so much to offer, on so many different levels, that I actually felt I had grown personally after reading it. Definitely a 5 star read!
