......Cliffhanger....

"Some day, Inshallah, you will be a great writer... and people all over the world will read your stories." Hosseini is a strong believer in the use of foreshadowing. Chapter end after chapter end, there is a cliffhanger. While these do make the reading a bit more enjoyable, I find them to be a little tiresome after the thirteenth go-round. Considering the fast-paced nature of the story, the foreshadowing does play a significant role. It serves to set up the next segment of the story. The narrator led the reader down a suspicious path when he or she alluded to the last time he would ever see Hassan truly smile. Clearly, this lets the reader know that the next part will not be a positive experience for the young Hassan. That does seem to be the theme of the first quarter of the book, though, so the narrator could really just say, "And then Amir did it again. Get the tissues."