"My husband, who is not at all a reader himself, bought it for me for a birthday present, and it was probably one of the best chosen presents I've gotten from him in like eight years of marriage.
It's about a 20-year span of the life of a very privileged Afghan boy who was raised with what he thought was just their butler's son, which turns out to be his half brother, and then they have to leave the country when there's civil war going on; and then in the end, he tries to go back to Afghanistan and save the son of his dead half-brother. Complicated.
It's very violent, and it's brutal; and if you're not into stories of child abuse, child sexual abuse, kidnapping, if you're not into horrible accounts of what the Taliban does under the guise under the -- I don't know, religious teachings, then it's not for you. It's got parts that are hard to stomach.
I guess people who care about current events, people who care about other cultures, anyone who's ever wanted to adopt a child from a foreign country. The privileged son, when he grows up and moves to America, he marries a woman and is unable to conceive with her; and I don't remember whose fault it is, but anyone who's like worried about adopting a child from a foreign country, this is kind of another theme woven in.
Maybe the message that it's never too late to redeem yourself or that it's worth trying to write the wrongs of your past. I would give it a five -- five, but caution you that it's not a light read."
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