I haven't read a five-star book in a while, and this one really got to me. I wouldn't describe my mentality around giving five stars as particularly sophisticated - it's a feeling for me more than anything, and if I rate a book four stars that also means I really, really liked it. But this book checked all the boxes for me -incredible scene-setting, inspiring story, lessons about history and morality and grief and resilience, a protagonist I felt instantly connected to, and side characters I became so attached to - and it hit me really hard. Maybe it's because I was really fascinated by the story of Anastasia as a child, but Sitara's experience being in a palace during her coup, and her attempts to rebuild her life after the fact, felt so vivid and visceral. The events in Afghanistan in the late 1970s and 1980s are obviously not talked about enough in America - I certainly didn't learn any of this in school - and it's essential knowledge for how we got where we are now and the damage the US has wrought. I've been meaning to read this book for ages, and it really delivered.