He is able to capture the reality of the time and setting through his words and write with a purpose. As a result, it can be said that he uses this work of historical fiction less as a theatrical stage and more as a platform to introduce audiences to the inhumanity of Afghanistan. Not only does it incorporate the Taliban's grueling "beard guards", who patrol the streets in their fancy Toyota trucks in the hope of finding "a clean-shaven face to bleed", but it also shows the horrific and chilling abuse of women that exists in hands of men and the feelings of great desperation and pain that these women face as a result. Living in a state of unbearable fear of the next beating, the next bomb exploding, and the next brutal Taliban attempt, the lives of these characters seem almost too real not to be true. As a result, the reader is left to wonder whether or not this literary dimension added to reality is an introspective study of individuals Hosseini has long studied.