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Title: Commercial? Yes! Great? No!
Review: The prose is workmanlike but not distinguished, The plot is contrived and lapses into melodrama and the maudlin. Afghanistan is merely sketched as the novel's background. A Cliff-Notes tour of a country and its customs. The book is, however, a page-turner, thanks to its editing: bite-sized chapters, each of which ends on a note that encourages reading onward. Which pretty much defines many a modern best-seller. For a quick, non-demanding read OK. For more substantial fare, look elsewhere. I note that many reviewers here who lavish highest praise upon the novel are students and those whose reading range seems limited.
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