This collection of short stories gives us insight in life in Iran before and during the Islamic Revolution. The later stories about life in exile are not as interesting. But all the stories are somehow depressing.

The book is a collection of short stories, sometimes with recurring characters, whose main theme is the sense of loss and despondence shared by many Iranians, who left the country in the aftermath of the Islamic Revolution. We encounter a large variety of characters in different points of their lives, but all share a sense of lack of belonging and are often torn between their emotionally visceral connection to Iran and the reality of their lives in the West. These characters also share a profound sense of yearning that keeps them from fully letting go and immersing themselves in their new lives, and, in some, cases this sense is exacerbated by family still living in Iran.

Overall, I found the book to be a rewarding read. It actually reminded me of Enchanted by Death by Alexievich, where the author describes the trauma of the breakup of the Soviet Union through glimpses of lives that were shattered by it. While Hosseini is prose and Alexievich is non-fiction, there are a lot of similarities in the atmosphere the books generate, and the feeling of dejection they left me with.#

That being said, I struggled a bit with the writing style and the energy. The stories, while revealing and rewarding emotionally, felt unpolished and a bit awkward in the way they were told. There was something that failed to draw me in - very difficult for me to put my finger on it, but it's most likely due to the fact that I found the underlying message of the stories (coming to life via the characterisation of the protagonists) less complex and multi-dimensional that it could have been.