Incredibly beautiful. I will undoubtedly be reading this again, and I can wait to get my hands on more of Joukhadars work. The story worked because the writing was so engaging, but I did have to work to suspend my disbelief at some points, there were just too many coincidences to make it a believable plot.

Ilyas finding Laila in the forest, Nadir finding Laila’s journal, Nadir suddenly coming across Teta’s/Laila’s locket/his teta being Laila’s lover at all, Nadir and Qamar just happening to find Laila’s study of  G. simurghus in Qamar’s jido’s book, discovering the box the very morning of the demolition, and if Nadir read all of Laila’s book then why doesn’t he know she didn’t finish the Simurghus painting? Nadir discovering Laila worked out too perfectly, the book could have been just as good if readers still got Laila’s chapters but Nadir never found the notebook, or if, through the community, Nadir still met Laila at the end and she or her family filled in some of the mysteries.

All that said, this was a stunning book and it’ll stay in my heart.