Ratings: 5/5⭐
Genre: Fiction; Bildungsroman, Drama
Number of Pages: 340
Format: Paperback
Publisher: Riverhead books
Published on: May 29, 2003
Movie Adaptation: 14th December 2007
The Kite Runner – Khalid Hosseini
The Kite runner is the debut novel of the very famous and bestselling author Khaled Hosseini. The book deals with such events that are sure to move even the toughest hearts.
“Time can be a greedy thing-sometimes it steals the details for itself.”
SUMMARY
The story is narrated by the protagonist, Amir, who’s the legitimate son of a Pashtun, who’s a rich and reputable merchant in Kabul. He lost his mother just after his birth. He felt he wasn’t much loved by his father because he wasn’t “as brave as his Baba was”. He gets fatherly affection from Rahim Kaka, who was his father’s friend and appreciated him for his writings. He was friends with Hassan, who was the son of Ali, a Hazara, who worked in their house. His mother, Sanaubar, had abandoned them when he was an infant. Both boys grew up together in the same house and Baba loved them equally, which was quite annoying to Amir.
To earn praise from his father, the boys participate in a “kite flying competition” in which Amir wins. Hassan is the best “kite runner” (from which the book gets its title) and can find a kite without even watching it. He runs after the last fallen kite saying to Amir “For you, a thousand times over”. Amir runs after Hassan and beholds something that changes their relationship forever. Amir can no longer meet eyes with Hassan and thinks his life would be better without him so he falsely accuses him of theft and Hassan and Ali leave their place.
In 1979, when the Russians invaded Afghanistan, Amir and his Baba are forced to flee to Pakistan and then to America. There Amir meets Soraya and her family, who’re refugees too. Baba is diagnosed with cancer but before he seeks death, he fulfills the wish of his son to get married to his love, Soraya. Baba dies shortly after that.
Although Amir has had fifteen years of a lively writing career and a happy marriage life, he cannot seek redemption. His past still does haunt him. It’s now that he receives a phone call from Rahim Khan, who’s on his deathbed and wishes to see him for one last time in Pakistan.
When Amir meets Rahim Kaka, he finds out that Hassan and Ali are dead. Though, Hassan had a son who was still in Kabul and has to be saved from the impossible-to-live conditions there. After a lot of thought on Rahim Khan’s words- “There’s a way to be good again”, Amir agrees to go to his motherland.
When he reaches Kabul, he is shaken by the horrible conditions there and simply cannot recognize the place as it was in his childhood. However, after a lot of dramatic and suspenseful events, Amir happens to save Sohrab, Hassan’s son, though he gets fatal injuries.
He takes him to America along with him but Sohrab doesn’t seem to adapt really to all of the things that have happened to him at such a tiny age. But finally in the end when Amir and Sohrab fly a kite and Amir asks him if he should run after the fallen kite, he gave him the slightest of smiles which was more than sufficient for Amir and he says “For you, a thousand times over” and he runs.
“It always hurts more to have and lose than to not have in the first place.”
Personal Reviews
This book was highly recommended to me by all my bookish friends and I’m glad I started my year with such a nice book. It is full of emotions which is sure to stir your heart. I love the intense and honest writing of the author. The plot is simply amazing and the characters have a lasting impact on your mind. The narration is smooth and the writing is lucid. The book leaves you with a smile on your face and it forced me to think about the characters and their lives again and again.
Now, it’s actually impossible for me to look at a kite and not think of “The Kite Runner”.
“Zendagi Migzara, life goes on, unmindful of beginning, end…crisis or catharsis, moving forward like a slow, dusty caravan of kochis (nomads).”
About the author
Khaled Hosseini, an Afghan-born American-based writer, is the author of three bestselling novels. He has a unique and appreciable style of writing. He was born in Kabul to a diplomat in the Afghan Foreign Ministry and a school teacher in 1965 in Kabul. His family moved to France when he was 11. He completed his graduation in Medicals and practiced as a physician when he wrote “The Kite Runner”. It was after this book became an international bestseller that he quit practicing medicine to become a full-time writer.
He lives in America with his family. He has been working to provide humanitarian assistance in Afghanistan through the Khaled Hosseini Foundation.