Have you ever walked down a path of stepping stones where the stones are a little too far apart? You stretch to hit the stones, but it's uncomfortable. Sometimes you give up and just step on the gaps because it's too hard. That's what reading this book felt like. Hosseini tracks several different threads, jumping among them, and though he ties them all together at the end, most jumps are just a little too far and the story can be hard to follow.

Despite that, don't give up on reading this. Hosseini captures the depth of suffering, the joy of small victories, and the multiple facets of people's characters. He paints the effects of man's inhumanity to man so vividly.