The Kite Runner |
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Khaled Hosseini
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Pages: 336 (Paperback)
ISBN: 0747566534
Pub: Bloomsbury Publishing PLC
Pub date: 2004-06-07
Amazon.co.uk Sales Rank: 11
Editorial 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
Reader Reviews:
ONE OF THE BEST BOOKS I'VE EVER READ (1/1 people found this helpful)
This is an excellent portayal of a boy's childhood growing up in Afghanistan and the betrayal of his best friend. He suffers for years upon years with guilt and finally begins the journey to ultimate redemption. It's very very hard to put it down.Praise to Khaled Hosseini.It is one of those books that you will remember forever.
Gripping (0/0 people found this helpful)
I adored this book, from page 1 it had me well and truly hooked. It was beautifully written, the story of two boys growing up together, but so different.The twists and turns made this book one of the best I have ever read. Funny, sad, it has it all, I had a real job to put the book down once I had started reading it. When I had finished reading it I felt lost, and sad that there was no more. I really, really loved it.
Outstanding and thought-provoking! (0/0 people found this helpful)
Although this book had been on my shelf for a while I had not got around to reading it..........I have no idea why. I don't really believe hype about books because I think that everyone's opinion should be unique to them, however this story does measure up to some of the justly praises it received. It must be agreed that being set in Afghanistan would induce some to buy or avoid the book, but I don't think anyone could be so heartless that they couldn't be drawn into the story. Reading the story drew me into the lives of the 2 boys, Hassan and Amir, and by the end of the book I felt disappointed, and unusually for me, willing the story to go on. Don't see the film, read the book! an excellant short and easy read that will leave you thinking.
Good - but not that good! (0/1 people found this helpful)
Just a short review as there are so many already - BUT .... I was a bit disappointed by The Kite Runner, not least because I read A Thousand Splendid Suns first and expected this book to be as good - it wasn't.
Another reviewer said of The Kite Runner 'It's an adequate story, filled with parts that are designed to make the reader cry.' I agree with this. I did find it a little predictable and it lacked something which A Thousand Splendid Suns had (which I can't quite put my finger on) but that's not to say that it's not well written as Hosseini does have an incredible gift as an author.
Perhaps I wasn't compelled to turn the pages as quickly as I expected - this is all too often the case though with massively over-hyped books. That said, I've read worse.
Astonishing (0/1 people found this helpful)
This book was amazing! One of the best books I have ever read! It's beautifully written with a bitter sweet ending that will leave you speechless and thinking!
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Categories
Amazon.co.uk places this book into the following categories:
Books -> Subjects -> Fiction -> Authors, A-Z -> H -> Hosseini, Khaled
Books -> Refinements -> Language (feature_browse-bin) -> English
Books -> Refinements -> Age (feature_two_browse-bin)
Books -> Refinements -> Format (binding_browse-bin) -> Paperback
Books -> Refinements -> Condition (condition-type)