I put off reading this book for what seemed to me a long time, largely due to my belief that it would pale in comparison to The Kite Runner. I was wrong. This is an incredibly beautiful and sad story that quietly unfolds in your heart. Khaled Hosseini is uncommonly gifted in his abilty to put the reader, seemingly, smack dab within the very lives and spirit of his characters. This is a story that will seep into your bones and infiltrate your soul, where its whispers and conversations will dwell and echo from room to room and time to time. This should be required reading for any one who does now, or ever has, loved a woman or a child. It is a story that needs to be told and I seriously doubt anyone could have told it better.