Telling the story of the Afghani refugee crisis spanning thirty years--from the Soviet invasion to 9/11--from the point of view of two Afghani women, this is a beautifully written, heart-wrenching book, and I was absolutely furious all the way through most of it. I picked it up because one of my tutees is writing a paper on it and I figured I could help her better if I'd read the book; I wasn't expecting to enjoy it as much as I did (despite the anger). This is a case where I wasn't angry with the author or the book itself, but with the circumstances of the characters, made worse by the fact that it's based on actual historical events. Upon reflection, I remembered that this is what literature is *for*; I understood, in the abstract, that life for Muslim women under the Taliban was awful, but this book brought that awfulness home in a way that just studying history and/or sociology couldn't do.