Point of View

This novel is told from the third person point of view. The narrator knows all of Parvana’s thoughts and emotions, but it only records the actions and words of the other characters. This point of view seems appropriate for the novel as it keeps the reader focused on Parvana and her story. Since she was the only one who was allowed to leave the house by order of the Taliban, no other character would have been able to describe the things going on outside the house.

The novel is told in the past tense in a fairly linear fashion. There are no flashbacks. Any past information needed by the reader is given in the form of Parvana thinking about the way things had been in the past, or describing why something is the way it is. For instance, Parvana was able to go to...