The Kite Runner - Khaled Hosseini

I came upon this book by sheer chance. I originally wanted to purchase the Richard & Judy recommended book, A thousand Suns, but did not have enough money so settled for this cheaper book. Reading the back it usually not my cup of tea reading about a different culture, i prefer my thrillers, however i was pleasantly surprised by this book and the emotional roller coaster it took you on. The Kite Runner tells the story of Amir, a boy from the Wazir Akbar Khan district of Kabul, who is haunted by the guilt of betraying his childhood friend Hassan, the son of his father's Hazara servant. The story is set against a backdrop of tumultuous events, from the fall ...  Read the complete review

The Kite Runner by Khaled Hosseini is an absorbing tale of life in Afghanistan. It tells the tale of Amir a young boy from a fairly wealthy family in Afghanistan. This is Afghanistan in the 1970’s before the Taliban and before the Soviet invasion. Amir lives in a nice house with his father (his mother died shortly after childbirth) and in the grounds of the house lives his fathers servant Ali with his son Hassan. Hassan is the kite-runner of the story but I will explain what that means later. Ali and Hassan come from the lower caste Hazaras and Amir although happy to play with the illiterate Hassan when he needs a friend at other times ignores him or ...  Read the complete review

I bought the book because four people recommended it highly in a matter of days, they didn’t give me any details, only told me that I had to read it, period. The name of the author, Khaled Hosseini, meant nothing to me, not surprisingly, as The Kite Runner is the debut novel of an Afghan whose family received political asylum in the USA in 1980. The first chapter begins with the sentence, “I became what I am today at the age of twelve . . .” creating suspense. The choice of words in the following paragraph makes it clear that something negative must have happened to the first-person narrator. We also learn that he is in San Francisco now and that a phone call ...  Read the complete review

Perhaps unusually, I read The Kite Runner after I'd read A Thousand Splendid Suns, and even more unusually from what Ive read of other reviews, I found it to be a less satisfying read than A Thousand Splendid Suns. ~~So whats it about?~~ The story is about two boys growing up in Afghanistan before and during the outbreak of trouble. Amir lives a privileged life as the son of a wealthy businessman, and Hassan is his very loyal friend - and also the son of the families servant. Hassan is a loving and loyal friend to Amir, sticking up for him when he is being bullied, cooking for him and basially being totally devoted to him. Amir, although he ...  Read the complete review

Something very diffrent to the usual novel I read, this was picked up by me after being chosen by my online book club, Babbling Books, as one of our two book choices to read that month. Telling the story of the lives of two young men growing up in Afghanistan, the book focuses on friendship across the boundaries of Afghanistanic society, the trials and tribulations that can test those friendships and ultimately how redemption for past grievances can sometimes lead to possible hope for the future. Amir comes from a fairly rich family; Hassan is his best friend and servant to his family. Because of his inferior race, Hassan and Amir's friendship takes ...  Read the complete review