I have read a few other books from this oppressed time/country, so I knew it would not necessarily have a happy ending. What I found most interesting is that after reading the blurb on the back of the book, I assumed I would end up feeling sorry for the bookseller. To my surprise I wound up hating him. He was greedy, selfish and entirely unable to break free from his ways of life, even though he thought himself to be a liberal.

Two thumbs up, though, to this book set in before, during and after the Taliban in Afghanistan.