The Kite Runner

Product Details

Author : Khaled Hosseini
Binding : Paperback
EAN : 9780385660075
Number of Pages : 400
Product Group : Book
Publisher : Anchor Canada
Release Date : 2004-05-11

ASIN : 0385660073

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Editorial Reviews

Amazon.ca

The "kite runner" of Khaled Hosseini's deeply moving fiction debut is an illiterate Afghan boy with an uncanny instinct for predicting exactly where a downed kite will land. Growing up in the city of Kabul in the early 1970s, Hassan was narrator Amir's closest friend even though the loyal 11-year-old with "a face like a Chinese doll" was the son of Amir's father's servant and a member of Afghanistan's despised Hazara minority. But in 1975, on the day of Kabul's annual kite-fighting tournament, something unspeakable happened between the two boys.

Narrated by Amir as a 40-year-old novelist living in California, The Kite Runner tells the gripping story of a boyhood friendship destroyed by jealousy, fear, and the kind of ruthless evil that transcends mere politics. Running parallel to this personal narrative of loss and redemption is the story of modern Afghanistan and of Amir's equally guilt-ridden relationship with the war-torn city of his birth. The first Afghan novel to be written in English, The Kite Runner begins in the final days of King Zahir Shah's 40-year reign and traces the country's fall from a secluded oasis to a tank-strewn battlefield controlled by the Russians and then the trigger-happy Taliban. When Amir returns to Kabul to rescue Hassan's orphaned child, the personal and the political get tangled together in a plot that is as suspenseful as it is taut with feeling.

The son of an Afghan diplomat whose family received political asylum in the United States in 1980, Hosseini combines the unflinching realism of a war correspondent with the satisfying emotional pull of master storytellers such as Rohinton Mistry. Like the kite that is its central image, the story line of this mesmerizing first novel occasionally dips and seems almost to dive to the ground. But Hosseini ultimately keeps everything airborne until his heartrending conclusion in an American picnic park. --Lisa Alward

Customer Reviews

non-stop (2008-07-16)

I could not put this book down, and I am a very busy mom!!! Great story!

Never would have thought... (2008-06-08)

This is a book that I never would have set out to purchase myself, but a friend insisted that I read it. Wow! Definitely one of the best books I have ever read. A page-turner, suspenseful and heart-felt. A world I honestly did not know a lot about, but am so very glad I took the time to read up on. It was a simple read and difficult to put down. I hope that my children will read this book in a couple of years when they are older...I believe this is a story that all parents will appreciate, and all children need to be made aware of.....highly, highly recommended.

Amazing! (2008-03-28)

I don't think I've ever read a book that was so moving and so surprising. There were times where I was in such awe because of what happened in the story! I'm surely gonna remember this book!

Heartfelt story (2008-03-26)

Well written story that gives great insight into life in a struggling country. Really makes you appreciate what we take for granted. Looking forward to future creations of this author.

Packed with Emotions (2008-03-06)

This is a tale of two young boys living in Afghanistan in the 1960's during the last peaceful days of the monarchy. Amir well educated, enjoyed a life of privilege, the son of a wealthy business man, a Sunni Muslim and a Pashtun. Hassan is illiterate, the son of Amir's family servant, a Sh'ia muslim and a Hazara. The boys grow up together roaming the streets of Kabul and have developed a complex friendship filled with love, privilege and shame. Amir narrates their life experiences.The revolution and the invasion by Russian forces send Amir's family to the United States marking a turning point in Amir's life. Hassan's familly is abandoned which eventually leads to their demise. In America Amir is able to realize his dream of becoming a writer and marries for love. He eventually returns to Afghanistan during the Taliban rule with the hope of finding Hassan. In his search he discovers Hassan had a son, the only survivor of the family. Now held by the Taliban in a lost city, Amir goes to all extremes to win the son's freedom. This novel is an epic of fathers and sons, friendship between the boys and the guilt of betrayal, an unforgettable heartbreaking story. The Kite Runner is well crafted and the plot seems real enough that we forget this is a novel not a memoir. This book is a gritty description of beauty mixed with violence; it is as tender as it is brutal. Hosseini's writing is concise, to the point and packed with emotions. I highly recommend it.

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