The book started off alright, but pretty quickly it became clear that the author lacked skills for portraying psychological and emotional depth of his characters. In the second half, he seems to completely give up even trying. It reads like it's a child writing--very shallow and schematic. As lots of reviewers point out, the author relies on cliches way too often. As a result, it becomes almost painful to follow all the "coincidences" and read dialogues in which all characters sound the same. I feel this book does a disservice to Afghanistan and its people by turning everything into cliches. I would not recommend this book.