The Kite Runner

"The Kite Runner" is the first English novel written by an author from Afghanistan. It is the first novel by author Khaled Hosseini. It was voted the 2006's reading group book of the year. It was also the third best seller for 2005 in United States.

The protagonist of the story is Amir, a Pashtun boy from Wazir Akbar Khan district in Kabul, who hails from a rich family. He is haunted by the guilt of betraying his childhood friend Hassan, the son of his father's Hazara servant. This is the story of Amir's friendship with Hassan and how he atones for sins he had commited in childhood. The story is set against the backdrop of riotous events that rocked the nation of Afghanistan. It stated in 1973, when Daoud Khan staged a coup to overthrow Zahir Shah and established a republican government. It was the time of soviet invasion, the mass exodus of refugees to Pakistan and the United States, and the Taliban regime.

The story brings to notice the precarious condition of Afghanistan, i.e. established people losing everything, people getting severe punishments(even tortured to death) for petty crimes (some times the crime may not be a crime in true sense).

On reading some parts of the story, you feel such intense pain as though someone has heated an iron rod red hot and pierced it into you skin. But there are parts where you feel light and happy. For example when Amir and Hassan participate in the annual kite flying competition and, when they sit under the pomegranate tree near the Kabul river and Amir reads out to Hassan.

Overall an excellent work of fiction.

Cheers,