The Kite Runner. I forget the authors name. Khalhed Hosseini. He is an Afghanistan-American. It is semi biographical about growing up in Kabul, the Russian invasion and the Taliban.
Oh yeah. I think the only 2 pieces of fiction I've read in the last couple of years were the two Hosseini books. Extraordinary reads. Very entertaining but also with some educational value for those of us not familar with customs from that part of the world.