I’m not sure what to think about this book. On the one hand, I found it to be a powerful work and, especially the second half, gripping. On the other hand, sometimes there were just too many coincidences. To have the most brutal scene in the book, the stoning of the adulterers in the stadium, become ultimately attributed to Assef, Amir’s old tormentor, might be satisfying as fiction but seems unrealistic in retrospect. And to have Sohrab shoot out Assef’s eye with a slingshot, as Hassan threatened to do, was another. Having Amir end up as a harelip was a good symbol, yet was it pushing the symbolism too far? And yet the book seemed so realistic that both Sara and I wondered how autobiographical it was. Afghani culture and the brutality of the Talib certainly come through strong.
Author: Hosseni, Khaled
Date Published: 2003
Length: 12h 2m
Narrator: Hosseni, Khaled
