Khaled Hosseini

Set in Afghanistan in the 1970s, twelve-year-old Amir is desperate to gain his father's approval by winning the local kite-fighting tournament. His loyal friend Hassan promises to help, but neither boy could foresee what would happen that afternoon, which was to shatter their lives. X rated, contains graphic violence and explicit sex.

Mariam is only fifteen when she is sent to Kabul to marry the troubled and bitter Rasheed, who is thirty years her senior. Nearly two decades later, in a climate of growing unrest, tragedy strikes fifteen-year-old Laila, who must leave her home and join Mariam's unhappy household. Richard & Judy Bookclub