“I’m sorry,” Masooma whispers.I wasn’t totally convinced by the two previous novels I’ve read by Hosseini, but I really enjoyed this one: a narrative from multiple points of view, following the lives of three Afghan siblings from 1952 to 2010, from childhood to old age, across continents and cultures. The youngest brother stays in Afghanistan; the middle sister is adopted by a Franco-Afghan poet and grows up and lives her life in Paris; and the story ends with the oldest in California, which by odd coincidence is where I was travelling to when I finished the book today. I found the shift of narrative between viewpoint characters very effective, and I was able to put my cynicism aside to be moved by the last chapter. Recommended. You can get it here.
This was my top unread book by a non-white author, my top unread non-genre fiction book and my top book acquired this year. Next on those lists respectively are A Little Life, by Hanya Yanyagihara, Delta of Venus by Anaïs Nin and The Paying Guests by Sarah Waters.
