At the start of the book we read about the last political Afghan leader and how he was deposed before all these wars were started. His wife and family were exiled and for many years he lived in the virtual prison in Afghanistan and wrote letters to his family always expecting to come to them. The letters are placed throughout the book. It shows political problems and trouble are not new to Afghanistan.
But the book is not a historical book about times past as it dwells in the present time. It concerns many separate people and families that are all touched by the current war. The first is a fairly newly married wife and her husband who works for a charitable organization and loves his job and loves the people of Afghanistan. He is taken hostage by unknown forces and his wife and family have to worry of how they will deal with this and if he will be killed or returned.
The second person is an immigrant mother who has two sons. One of her son, a gentle soul, for some reason becomes a soldier and goes to fight in Afghanistan and is killed. The other son has never been able to understand why his brother went to Afghanistan and is very angry not only at his brother but at his mother too. He isolates himself from her.
The second son tries to understand his anger by becoming a street artist. He goes out every night and paints antiwar sign in graffiti style on walls around the city. One night the wife of the hostage meets him as he is painting and they form a relationship and by doing so manage to help and support each other.
A common bond is met between all these people and shows the political aspects and the conflict that spreads everywhere during war.
Not an easy book to read but it does gives some understanding to present conditions that many people are facing.
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