This book has outgrown the war that destroyed Afghanistan. Now the characters are not victims of the war literally, but they have been affected in some way or the other by the aftermath. And the characters , though Afghanis , are globally spread.
But unlike the other two, it lacks that soulful connection to the un- fortunate country, and borders on being a medium of encasing the author’s knowledge about whatever has happened there.
The narrative begins beautifully – the relationship of a little boy with his baby sister, the unconditional love he feels for her, and the brutality of fate that tears them apart. But that’s that. After that, it’s just a gallimaufry of storylines.
Too many plots and too many characters kill the show. And the worst part is that when you finally begin to feel connected with the character , after reading 80-odd pages about who they are and how the war affected them , they are done and won’t return as an important part of the central storyline.
Each buildup is heart-touching in itself. But their relevance to the main characters and their story is lost. Makes the reader wonder what the point was in knowing that character so deeply.
Although its still light years ahead of its contemporary fiction novels in terms of the attention to detail, and emotional content, its still very poor competition to its predeces- sors and in all fairness, stands no- where in comparison to A Thou- sand Splendid Suns.
This book would have been a treat had Abdullah and Pari been the only focus of the book. But as the spotlight shifted from them, the mountains were lost and all that remained were the barren bland plains with nothing much to keep a reader hooked.
In a nutshell, a good but disap- pointing read.
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