I have very mixed feelings about this one. On one hand, this is a story about complex family dynamics and what it means to be a family; however, this is also Khaled Hosseini's most experemntive work when it comes to structure and narrative techniques, so a lot of the time, the writing ended up distracting or diluting the original message of the stories instead of enhancing them. Furthermore, the book is focused on a wide range of characters, which is good when you want to explore different dynamics and how wealth and war contribute to them. In this book, the characters didn't have a deep connection with one another to justify the constant narrative change, and the main characters didn't seem as fleshed out as some of his other works. There were a lot of stories within this one, which I normally enjoy, but they didn't have a strong tie to each other, so some of them read as random and unnecessary, which left me with a bit of an unsatisfied feeling at the end. I do like what he tries to do in this novel I just think that the excess of perspective changes diluted the normally intimate feel of KH's books

Also, can I just say as someone with a disability, Khalid Hosseini is really bad at writing good disability representation? They are usually dehumanized or solely reliant on others which makes them burdens. Or they are treated as already dead, with one with disability killing herself so her sister can be "free" of her despite her sister giving her a disability and another character being abandoned by his wife who goes on to tell his daughter he is dead after he became disabled? There is a recurring pattern here, and it frankly is very harmful and dehumanizing. I can see how he tries to portray the struggles of disabled people in poverty but it doesn't even focus on the disabled people themselves but the people who have to help take care of them and how burdened they feel by it. Idk it made me angry as someone who has often felt like a burden to others because of something I can't control. This rhetoric is extremely problematic. Another character who has scars was described as being so hideous her best friend had to train himself not to look at her!? It doesn't sit right with me. And then there was the use of disability for sensationalism which was done horribly. He could have addressed these themes with more care empathy and research and I would have respected it however he just conforms to already existing biasis people have about disabilities which only reinforces harmful rhetorics

Edit: I originally gave this 3 stars because I thought the writing was very good, but going back to the disability point, I counted, and 3 characters got a physical disability. Every. Single. One of them is resented by their loved ones for being a burden. This is not okay. Not only is it unrealistic, it's just straight out ableist. yes people have disability but they also liveeee godamnit they arnt dead. they do things like evryone else with support of course but that support isn't bloody life support sorry for the rant but this point pisses me off.