I enjoyed this one much more than The Kite Runner but I think it still suffered the same issues. I didn't feel the characters were fully drawn, they did feel like stereotypes in places. I was left with the same overwhelming sadness - reading this in 2024 - that the book ends with hope - but the Taliban are back in charge in Afghanistan today.

Having said all that, it was, like the Kite Runner, highly readable. I cared about these characters and what would happen to them. I felt immersed in the Afghan history - something I am only just starting to get the shape of outside of the usual Western narrative. I preferred the female perspective here, and that it stayed in Afghanistan mostly throughout.