The setting of this novel is obviously Afghanistan. Through the lives of two women, Hosseini narrates the history of his homeland. The novel covers 30 years of political disturbance and violence of the civil war and the Taliban Dictatorship seen from a feminine point of view. It has been said that Hosseini has returned for a while to his homeland where he realized how miserable women were during this period. He vividly creates the “Harami”; illegitimate young girl of a rich business man: Jalel. By the time she was fifteen, her mother committed suicide and Mariam was forced to marry Rasheed, who recognized her physical inability to get him the “son”. After several years, he marries Laila; an ambitious delightful young girl who has just lost
