"The Kite Runner" by Khaled Hosseini

This fictitious story details the tragic account of a life spent in painful reconciliation with wrongfully made choices.

The main character, an Afghanistan boy, grows up in the turbulent times of the 1970s when civil war and economic turmoil ruled the plain. Forced to make a choice whether to help his long-time friend (and servant) Hassan during a confrontation with a local bully, Amir makes a choice which would haunt him for the next 20 years.

The readers of this book would be amazed with the author’s insightful and engaging narrative as they follow Amir on his voyage from Afghanistan (through Pakistan) to the United States where he attends school and college and becomes a successful novelist.
The novel could be considered competed at this point, except the author had another idea of how to resolve Amir’s internal conflict. From then on, the books brakes with reality and transforms into a fantastic quest of self redemption. Amir returns to Afghanistan to free the son of his long lost friend Hassan from an orphanage, abuse and impending death. The experiences surrounding this quest for redemption border on magic as Amir descends into the world of Taliban, brutality and destruction. And as in all happy Hollywood-endings, the book delivers a spectacular (even tearful) conclusion with Amir’s victorious achievement of inner peace.

Six words – great narrative but an unbelievable storyline.

Still, I recommend the novel to anyone interested in learning about the culture and people of Afghanistan.

-by Simon Cleveland