The Nature of Things

My rating:  5 of 5 star s The book begins with a bedtime story. A horrifying bedtime story for Abdullah, age 10, and his sister Pari, age 3. They beg their father for a story and finally he gives them one. It is the tale of a  div , a supernatural being who lives in the mountains of Afghanistan and periodically comes to take a child from their village. In the story that the father tells, there lives a family of a man and woman and their five children in a village. They are very happy. The man loves all his children but the greatest joy of his life is the baby of the family, his youngest son, a three year old boy. One night, the most dreaded terror of all occurs. The div comes to the village and, of all the village families, it chooses this happy family and tells the parents that they must give it one of their children. They must choose which one. They have until morning to make the choice or they will lose all. The anguished parents cannot decide, but finally, in desperation,...