This, as the entire world before me had discovered, is a beautiful book. It took me a little while to get into it — waiting for some flaw somewhere, however little, that justified why it took me so long to read this book.

And I found the odd word choice here, there. But then even those disappeared and I got sucked into the story.

I think there is some portion of my brain that connected the (horrible) experience of reading The House of Sand and Fog with this book, and so I stayed away. I’m not saying that’s a rational connection, it was just there.

Hosseini does such a great job of narrating this story and stepping out of the way, not beating you over the head with the emotions you’re meant to be feeling, and he builds suspense especially well towards the end of the book (the scene in which you think, “Hmm, that’s odd he mentioned tha… oh God, that’s going to come back pretty soon in a nasty way, isn’t it?” got me hooked).

Now, if only this book could reach a wider readership…