Bests & Worsts Reviews from Amazon

This novel opens with a parable told by a father to his son, about another father who is forced to give up his young son to a monster, a div. When the father later confronts the div and discovers that his son has been well taken care of and is leading a happy life, the div asks the father to make a choice: take his son home or leave him to his happy life. Realizing that to take his son would fill the void in his own heart but ruin his son's life, he leaves the son. Recognizing the father's selflessness, the div rewards him by erasing the memory of his son. Despite this "gift," the father is left his a hole in his soul that is never filled. This opening parable is reflected in the rest of the interconnected stories in this novel, all of which involve, to some degree, characters presented with the same choice. Although the main narrative involves the bond between a brother and sister, this novel is actually much broader in scope than a story of siblings. The common thread, in my mind, is the effect of breaking a bond between two family members or close friends. When these bonds are broken, often voluntarily and for the good of one of the pair and the detriment of the other, the characters are forced to view the world in a new light. As young Abdullah notes shortly before losing his sister, he "felt the true vastness of the desert, and the world, for the the first time. How easily a person could lose his way in it." Of course, every broken bond leaves a hole in the lives of the characters, ones they attempt to fill, often with other people. As one mother explains, she needs her daughter to "fill these holes inside me." Some succeed in filling these voids, while others are left with gaping holes that will never be filled. Regardless of the overarching themes, this is an emotionally moving novel written by a master of crafting stories of relationships between people that we all can relate to. Hosseini often comes close to treading into overwrought sentimentality that, in the hands of a lesser author, would turn me off. Hosseini is saved by his remarkable ability to create characters and relationships that do not seem contrived. I am not ashamed to admit that I teared up during parts of this novel, which, in my eyes, is a sign that it was written by a masterful storyteller. Hosseini is never restrained as he weaves several stories into a tapestry that is cohesive both in theme and in space. Each story is somehow connected to the others, although the characters themselves are often unaware. Like his other novels, this one focuses mainly on Afghanistan, but Hosseini spans the globe, placing parts of the story in California, Paris, and Greece. When The Kite Runner was published, not long after 9/11 and the invasion of Afghanistan, many Americans had little knowledge of the people that lived there. Hosseini has excelled as introducing these people and their heartbreak to a general Western audience, humanizing the people that are eyewitnesses of the most recent war and the atrocious Taliban control that proceeded it. Now, as our involvement in Afghanistan begins to wind down, this novel shows, in some ways, the effect of our involvement in the country. This is not a novel about the war in Afghanistan. Many of the conflicts created in its stories, however, are in some way the result of the general upheaval caused by the many wars in that country. If nothing else, Hosseini's novels reflect the fate of Afghans in the last century: being caught as a cultural crossroads that often results in a mashing of people, some of whom are flung to the far corners of the world. One can only hope that the coming years bring a peace and prosperity to Afghanistan that allows the heart-wrenching dramas that populate Hosseini's novels to dissipate.