Themes

Women's rights and freedoms

Miriam is not someone who has any options. She is treated as something unwanted, partially because she is a "bastard" child, but partially also because she is female. When she tries for a baby with her husband, he refuses to consider girls' names, and does not buy any girl's clothes. Laila, on the other hand, born on the eve of the Islamist revolution, is encouraged to do everything. She represents a modern woman and the communist regime she lives under gets credit for developing that aspect of her. She has choices as long as the regime lasts. When politics change in the country, and the fighting intensifies, her freedoms are restricted.

Afghanistan's history

The author is specific about interweaving the history of Afghanistan with the history of each of his characters. The world they live in may be fiction, but the world they live in is the world Hosseini knows, and it is this world that the novel is ultimately about. The history that is traced runs from progressive communist occupation during the Soviet era to Islamist totalitarianism under the Taliban, with periods of factional fighting and other periods when local warlords run each neighborhood. For example, two characters have their first fight as a married couple when one expresses optimism that the American involvement in Afghanistan might improve things, while the other cannot be optimistic about a process that will involve bombings. All in all, the novel takes the people's perspective, and leaves the political history in the background.

Suffering and the actions that redeem it

Much of the book is spent detailing the ways in which Miriam and Laila suffer at Rasheed's hands, and the ways in which Afghanis suffer because of the political instability in Afghanistan. Afghanistan might be a pawn between various powerbrokers, but the suffering that people like Miriam and Laila and their children feel is real, and the story dramatizes that. Hope is a rare feeling for Miriam to feel, and she only experiences it on rare occasions. In addition to the sufferings from war and drought and corruption, it is amazing that anyone survives, and those who do survive feel an obligation to make life better for others.

Friendship

Laila and Tariq are the best of friends in the beginning of the story, and they remain bound by affinity and then by history as they grow older. Miriam and Laila become friends, and their friendship follows all the way to the grave. Friendship is established by standing up for someone -- not only liking them, but putting yourself on the line for their sake. After these gestures, these characters are bound for good; they know who they are by the actions they have taken.