I was so excited to read the first book from Khaled Hosseini in six years.  After his huge success with two of my favorite books The Kite Runner and A Thousand Splendid Suns, this book was eagerly awaited.  Oh how I wanted to love it, but I didn't even like it very much.  I think my problem was with the time shifting for each character.  Often that particular devise can be used effectively to tell a story that spans decades and multiple characters, but I felt like we were lurching from one story to the next, rather then making smooth transitions.  Hosseini is a genus at bringing the world of the Afghan diaspora to life, but this work is not quite as good as the others.  Read it for yourself however, and let me know what you think.  See a complete plot summary below!

Library Journal (April 1, 2013)

This bittersweet family saga spans six decades and transports readers from Afghanistan to France, Greece, and the United States. Hosseini (The Kite Runner; A Thousand Splendid Suns) weaves a gorgeous tapestry of disparate characters joined by threads of blood and fate. Siblings Pari and Abdullah are cruelly separated at childhood. A disfigured young woman, Thalia is abandoned by her mother and learns to love herself under the tutelage of a surrogate. Markos, a doctor who travels the world healing strangers, avoids his sick mother back home. A feminist poet, Nila Wahdatire, reinvents herself through an artful magazine interview, and Nabi, who is burdened by a past deed, leaves a letter of explanation. Each character tells his or her version of the same story of selfishness and selflessness, acceptance and forgiveness, but most important, of love in all its complex iterations.