The Kite Runner

The Kite Runner is a haunting and quite extraordinary first novel by Khaled Hosseini. The novel launches readers into the realities of Afghan society, using the political events of Afghanistan from the 1970s to 2001 as a foreground around a touching and memorable story of the friendship between two boys of differing social class and ethnic backgrounds. The boys, the protagonist Amir and his friend Hassan, live in Kabul, where they have been tended to by the same wet-nurse and have been reared in the same household. Since Amir springs from the elite, while Hassan emerges from a less respectable ethnic minority, the boys inhabit contrasting worlds. Their symbiotic relationship and their intertwined lives and fates, in particular the critical incident of the racist attack on Hassan by the half-caste Assef while Amir silently looks on, are cleverly but unobtrusively utilized by the author to mirror Afghanistan's political, social and religious tensions and complexities. Lucky to escape an Afghanistan besieged by the Rusians and their local allies, the Talibans, Amir embarks on a new life in California, convinced that his soul can be at peace now that he has left his past behind. Of course, Amir soon discovers that such a release is not easily achieved.

The Kite Runner is a riveting page-turner that continuously engages readers in the unfolding events it depicts. Replete with surprising twists and turns, it is as tightly and intricately woven as a rich tapestry. If the author's intent, also, is to keep Afghanistan and its history in the public's consciousness, he succeeds. At the same time, the novel transcends time and place or the immediate locale, for it may be read as an ethical parable for all peoples who are confronted daily with personal struggles pertaining to family, love, betrayal, guilt, fear, and redemption. It exemplifies the complexity and difficulty of the achievement of personal salvation and the recognition of self. The Kite Runner is a remarkable novel well worth the attention of a general readership.

I read it in 3 days.
I've heard Sam Mendes has optioned it for a movie.
I can't wait.