“Under the protective cover of darkness, the taxi he and his family were traveling in swerved around a bombed-out Soviet tank and exited the pockmarked highway. They needed to avoid the checkpoints set up by black-turbaned men on the main road.” 

This passage deftly illustrates Afghanistan’s history of war and the danger the Nurzais face as they escape Kabul. Senzai uses the technique of indirectly presenting difficult subjects through imagery and Fadi’s experience. As such, much of the novel’s exposition takes place through Fadi’s point of view.

“Fadi tuned out his sisters’ phenomenally boring conversation. Added a chunk of crumbly brown sugar to his watered-down hot milk, and stirred.” 

The second part of this sentence accomplishes the same purpose as the passage above, which is to show the family’s strained circumstances in a natural way. The first part of the sentence presents an important irony because even though Fadi finds his sisters’ conversation about the Barbie doll boring, after he loses Mariam, he will fixate on Gulmina and think about her daily.

“Whenever someone is handed lots of power, they have a tendency to abuse it.” 

Habib’s statement about why the formerly upright Taliban became oppressive is that power corrupts, a universal idea that implies that the Taliban’s Islamic beliefs and Pukhtun culture are not to blame for their turn to militancy.