3.5 rounded up. I did this book a disservice reading it as audiobook, so that was part of my problem as the book went on. It’s very well written on a sentence level, but sort of meandering which made it hard to track on audio.

The narrator is omniscient and often summarizes chunks of time or events, and then other times zooms in and presents a moment in real time. It makes for a story that feels kept at a distance. Normally I like first person, character driven, introspective stories, but I didn’t mind the different feel of this story. It still had reflective moments and such expressive writing. That kept me in it.

The second half of the book felt less cohesive than the first half. It included moments with other characters that made the focus feel confused.

I love how the story of Saeed and Nadia played out. It felt loving and respectful. Neither was demonized - they are just different and grow in different ways.