What readers think of When the Moon Is Low, plus links to write your own review.

Most of us are pretty familiar with the tragedy of ever-growing numbers of refugees fleeing war, poverty, & persecution.Social justice issues are dear to my heart and I have read a good number of novels as well as journalists' reports on this subject. While this story reveals some of the horrors refugees experience, I'm inclined to think it doesn't go nearly deep enough.This story is told from the two different perspectives of a Middle-Eastern, widowed mother & her grieving and angry young adolescent son as they escape across several countries with two smaller children, one of whom is grievously ill. No mother's heart could fail to be touched by just the thought of enduring such fear as she & her children went through and I was certainly no exception. The novel, written by an Afghan-American pediatrician, suggests they also experienced a level of human kindness that one can only hope might be realistic. The critical importance of volunteer aid workers in countries hosting refugees cannot be emphasized enough. Saleem, the fifteen year old boy who is determined to be the man of the family, will break your heart, particularly as we watch him repeatedly compromise his principles, as taught by his deceased father, in order to provide food & shelter for his family, while protecting his mother from the truth of just how precarious their lives and futures really are.

This was a good book but I would not say great. It was fiction but read like non-fiction, we all know how bad things were in Afghanistan when the Taliban came in and how desperately people wanted to leave. I did not find the family's story all that compelling. I was more interested in the mother than the teenage son but the majority of the book was about the son. I found myself thinking things were bad but not really THAT bad and they did have money which certainly helped with bribes and their escape plan. Not every family was that fortunate.

I was more a than a little disappointed in this book, especially after reading Khaled Hosseini's endorsement. The story itself is compelling as well as timely, particularly as the world is in the midst of a crisis involving Syrian refugees. But the family's experiences were fairly tame compared to the horrors that real-life refugees live through every day. The writing in general was not very deep or detailed and felt a bit contrived, and characters were not well developed. The book ended without telling readers what happened to the family, which I don't mind in some books but found annoying in this one. I have not read Ms. Hashimi's first book, but on the basis of this book alone, I certainly would not compare this author with Khaled Hosseini.

I did really like the book and would certainly recommend it. However, perhaps the timing reading this book effected my review...these past weeks, the news is fulled with refugee stories. Heartbreakingly real-with pictures and real-time coverage of Syrian refugees making their way to Greece, Hungary, etc.-I couldn't help feel that this lovely book was missing something. Something that took me deeper into the characters and their struggle. On the other hand, reading this book while the Syrian refugee exodus was happening helped me understand the back story of the real people trying to make their way to safer land and all that they go through and the sacrifices they make to leave their countries behind. For that, I really thank the author.

boring...I feel so awful writing a mediocre review of When the Moon is Low, but it just didn't grab me. I found the writing stilted and a bit sophomoric, characters didn't grab me. That said, the story is good and demands to be told.