4.5 stars ... I did really like this and I think I'll remember it. I just did a quick pleasure read. I'm sure if I was reading for bookclub or school, and took more time, made notes, delved deeper, I'd likely up the appreciation for it. 

I went with the audio, read by the author. I had the Kindle copy and physical copy too. I was actually glad to have all three. Audio is easiest to help me get through a book (I have much more ear time than eye time). I love Kindle to quickly search, make notes/highlights ... generally a Kindle edition is the most up to date (as it is easily updateable). Here though, the physical copy had a new forward that wasn't included in the audio or kindle copy, and it had some very interesting information (parallels between the author's life and the story, etc). It also had discussion questions, which I appreciate. 

The first person, past tense, being read by the author, really gave this a "memoir" feel at first. I did a quite double check even though I was 95% sure this was fiction. It just had that feel of someone telling their own story. Basic chronological chapters (25 of them) ... I wished a bit that the extra info ... December 2001 header for chapter 1 ... what was the date when Chapter 2 went back to the beginning? Chapter 10 was March 1981 - a change in the story, as Amir and Baba are leaving. Chapter 11 is the 1980s in California. Chapter 14 is June 2001. Chapter 16 is another change ... the POV shifts to Rahim Khan telling his story.  I got a little confused at this in the audio and wondered if it was any clearer in print ... no, it wasn't. Would a header have been too disruptive? Have it be in italics? In audio, I almost wished for a different narrator just for that chapter, to make the different POV more distinctive.  As far as a TOC, and the physical copy doesn't even have one at all ... I would like these distinctive chapters noted so if I wanted to go back and re-read Rahim's chapter, I could look at the TOC and know where to turn to, rather than having to flip through all the pages until I found it. In "chapters" in audio were completely different (first lines), which is pretty much useless. If I lost my place but remembered I had just started chapter 19 ... that help me at all in the audio TOC.  Yes ... I have Table of Content pet peeves ;) 

In the audio - there were times when there was a very long pause (perhaps in the text, when a _______ divides sections within a chapter). They were too long though, I'd think I'd bumped my phone and turned the book off. 

Words I note - Scowl, roil ... proFanity (x4) as well as a really crude sexual statement, and rape, abuse and murder. A couple of statements I highlighted "Every woman needed a husband. Even if he did silence the song in her."  and "It wasn't meant to be, or, it was meant not to be."  Interesting thoughts on theft (that it covers ALL the sins) and 650+ saved quotes here on Goodreads. I love looking over the quotes that others have saved. 

I liked the repetition/imagery with the kites, the cleft lip, etc.  I don't know that I really understood or will remember everything. I even struggled a bit with the names of Amir and Ali (I have this thing where I remember the first letter, but not the name, so had to turn to the book to clarify which was our MC and which was Hassan's father). I don't know that I really felt like I learned a lot about Afghanistan, as I sometimes feel like I really discover new things in some historical fiction. This, being in the 80s and 2000s, isn't really historical, although at times it feels like a different world than the one I was growing up in during those same years. 

I plan on reading the other books by this author, but not back to back.