Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #37 in Books
• Published on: 2004-06-07
• Original language: English
• Binding: Paperback
• 336 pages

Amazon.co.uk Review
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, 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, Amazon.ca

Review
'Hosseini's ability to reach the core of experiences of love and loss places him in the company of such fine chroniclers of the new America as Chang-rae Lee. The Kite Runner is a first novel of unusual generosity, honesty and compassion' Independent 'The shattering first novel by Khaled Hosseini a rich and soul-searching narrative a sharp, unforgettable taste of the trauma and tumult experienced by Afghanis as their country buckled' Observer 'A devastating, masterful and painfully honest story it is a novel of great hidden intricacy and wisdom, like a timeless Eastern tale. It speaks the most harrowing truth about the power of evil' Daily Telegraph 'Unforgettable extraordinary. It is so powerful that for a long time after everything I read seemed bland' Isabel Allende

Literary Review
'Beautifully nuanced, and the moment of Amir's ultimate betrayal is genuinely shocking. It is a passionate story'

Customer Reviews

amazing but not as good a thousand splendid sun!
this book just captivated me i guess basicaly since i just read a thousands ... i just had to get this !! and im glad i did khaled hossani really does have a knack of drawing in readers !! im 17 and i rarely read soooo trust me this is really really worth reading! plus you get to learn some afhan words and also get a taste of their culture and did i say history!

wow
I'm not normally a reader, it's been many years since I've managed to find a book captivating enough to catch my attention all the way through; until i found this book.
I decided to give reading another go and started reading The Kite Runner, and I was amazed! It truly is one of those books you just can't put down.
There are many experienced reviewers here who are big fans - but even from a non experienced novel reader there is something everybody will enjoy and take out of this.
Definitely a book to add to the list!

Books This Good Come Along Rarely
Though 'The Kite Runner' was first published in 2003 it reads like a book written by one of the masters of literature centuries ago - the level of language used, and the timeless story of friendship, betrayal, guilt and redemption make me believe that this will not be a book to be forgotten anytime soon but will be a book to outlive us all.

I put off reading this novel for a good few years as the blurb never gripped me - there was too much focus on Afghanistan and the country's fall (basically, too much History and Politics) but as there's a saying that 'you should never judge a book by it's cover' I think the same should also be spoken about blurbs, for though Afghanistan is an important part of the story it by no means overshadows the main story of Amir and Hassan, two best friends who's friendship is one day torn in two - something Amir, decades later, has bever been able to forgive himself about. And I feel I have to say, the parts that do focus on Anfhanistan and the country's past are done so in such a skilled way that I found myself fascinated (and horrified) by what happened to the country, and wanting to know more.

Theres a way that Khaled Hosseini writes, that feels so natural yet powerful at the same time, a skill that most authors take years to perfect and many never get to the same level Hosseini is with his debut novel. I was often reminded of the way Dicken's writes (though Hosseini is much lighter on the descriptive side), and a critic once mentioned a similarity to Shakespeare too, not in writing style but due to the heart of the novel - the focus on friendship and love. In my opinion, that comparison is wholey deserved.

One thing I really liked about this novel was the focus on friendship rather than a romantic relationship. It's refreshing to read about the love between best friends (especially during childhood, when friends are one of the most important things in your life), as most novels these days, if not mainly about a romantic relationship in the first place often star one in the background. Friendship rarely gets as much coverage, though at times I'd say the relationship between people who you've known your entire life and who have always been there for you through thick and thin is even more powerul.

Of course, there are faults with this novel, as there are with every novel. My main criticism would be about 100 pages from the end, when Amir goes to find Sohrab, and how everything just conveniently fits into place. The random begger on the street who just happened to know Amir's mother well, the identity of Sohrab's buyer - the entire novel before then had felt realistic, it may have even been an autobiography, all the events could have happened - the whole story felt genuine. But at this point I was suddenly brought back to the realisation that this was in fact a work of fiction, that none of these characters ever existed. This was the one moment in the otherwise perfect novel that let it down drastically for me.

Theres so much to say about this novel, but nothing I say could really be the same as reading the novel yourself. It's an incredible book (definately one of my top 3 all time favourites) but just one warning - after reading this your expectations for a book will be irreversibly raised, and most other novels will just fall short and disappoint. I now can't wait to read Hosseini's second book, which I've heard is just as book, infact, even better than 'The Kite Runner'. Now that's something I can't imagine.