We've been hearing quite a lot recently about privilege and entitlement -- on social media, in blogs and op-ed articles, and in various gatherings, so perhaps it was an appropriate time to read a novel centred on privilege.

That wasn't the reason I started to read it though. I remember looking at it in book shops when it first appeared about 15 years ago, and thought I might read it some time, but then it disappeared from the popular fiction shelves and I forgot about it until I saw it on one of those "best books" lists, and found a copy in the library.

But as soon as I began reading it it became clear that the protagonist had been entitled to all kinds of things on account of his privileged birth and upbringing, which had been denied to the son of the man who lived in the servants quarters behind their house, though they had played together as children.

The story begin in Afghanistan, where I have never been so the setting is unfamiliar and far away, But the privilege is not. Seeing it in an unfamiliar setting somehow sharpens the contrast and makes it easier to see,

Foreign invasion and civil war mean that many lose their position of privilege in society, , and so introduces another theme of current political life, the life of refugees and asylum seekers. The refugees in America form part of an Afghan expat community, and though they have lost much of the privileged life they enjoyed back home, they are still privileged, as the protagonist discovers when he returns to Afghanistan,