The Kite Runner

Overview

The unforgettable, heartbreaking story of the unlikely friendship between a wealthy boy and the son of his father's servant, The Kite Runner is a beautifully crafted novel set in a country that is in the process of being destroyed. It is about the power of reading, the price of betrayal, and the possibility of redemption, and it is also about the power of fathers over sons--their love, their sacrifices, their lies.

The first Afghan novel to be written in English, The Kite Runner tells a sweeping story of family, love, and friendship against a backdrop of history that has not been told in fiction before, bringing to mind the large canvases of the Russian writers of the nineteenth century. But just as it is old-fashioned in its narration, it is contemporary in its subject--the devastating history of Afghanistan over the last thirty years. As emotionally gripping as it is tender, The Kite Runner is an unusual and powerful debut.

Editorial Reviews

Hosseini's stunning debut novel starts as an eloquent Afghan version of the American immigrant experience in the late 20th century, but betrayal and redemption come to the forefront when the narrator, a writer, returns to his ravaged homeland to rescue the son of his childhood friend after the boy's parents are shot during the Taliban takeover in the mid '90s. Amir, the son of a well-to-do Kabul merchant, is the first-person narrator, who marries, moves to California and becomes a successful novelist. But he remains haunted by a childhood incident in which he betrayed the trust of his best friend, a Hazara boy named Hassan, who receives a brutal beating from some local bullies. After establishing himself in America, Amir learns that the Taliban have murdered Hassan and his wife, raising questions about the fate of his son, Sohrab. Spurred on by childhood guilt, Amir makes the difficult journey to Kabul, only to learn the boy has been enslaved by a former childhood bully who has become a prominent Taliban official. The price Amir must pay to recover the boy is just one of several brilliant, startling plot twists that make this book memorable both as a political chronicle and a deeply personal tale about how childhood choices affect our adult lives. The character studies alone would make this a noteworthy debut, from the portrait of the sensitive, insecure Amir to the multilayered development of his father, Baba, whose sacrifices and scandalous behavior are fully revealed only when Amir returns to Afghanistan and learns the true nature of his relationship to Hassan. Add an incisive, perceptive examination of recent Afghan history and its ramifications in both America and the Middle East, and the result is a complete work of literature that succeeds in exploring the culture of a previously obscure nation that has become a pivot point in the global politics of the new millennium.
Copyright 2003 Reed Business Information, Inc. --This text refers to the Hardcover edition.
-- PUBLISHERS WEEKLY.

Author Information

Bio of Khaled Hosseini

Khaled's family relocated to Paris, France, where his father was assigned a diplomatic post in the Afghan embassy. In 1980, the Hosseini family was granted political asylum in the U.S., rather than returning to an Afghanistan that had witnessed a bloody communist coup and the Soviet invasion. He moved to San Jose, CA, with his family and attended Santa Clara University. He later graduated from UC San Diego School of Medicine. While practicing medicine, Khaled's attention turned to writing, inspired by his vivid memories of a peaceful pre-Soviet era Afghanistan, as well as of his personal experiences with Afghan Hazaras. His first novel, The Kite Runner, debuted to International acclaim. An eloquent tale of fathers and sons, friendship, class, and betrayal, it is set against the backdrop of history from the final days of Afghanistan's monarchy to the American overthrow of Taliban rule. Khaled is married, and has two children- a boy and a girl named Haris and Farah.

Customer Reviews

• Really good

  Posted July 02, 2008 by mbgyulay, Milwaukee, WI

  Thank you, Mr Hosseini. An excellent book about the human condition. Since the main character is a man, he wrote in the first person. In some ways, much starker than Thousand Splendid Suns.

• Sit and read until you're finished

  Posted March 04, 2009 by Mary LeVan, Lebanon, PA

  Found this book to be riveting. Can imagine this occurring. Finished this book and though it's listed as fiction, realized that somewhere in this world there are families and people like this.

Additional Info

Imprint

Penguin

Filesize

965.24 KB

Number of Pages

400

eBook ISBN

9780786578474