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The Kite Runner by Khaled Hosseini
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The Kite Runner

by Khaled Hosseini

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23,59964216 (4.26)334
(110) 2007(66) 2008(63) Afghanistan(2,026) betrayal(181) book club(159) boys(75) childhood(93) coming of age(155) contemporary(64) contemporary fiction(136) drama(60) family(134) fiction(2,495) friendship(437) historical fiction(132) Islam(100) Kabul(82) kites(108) literature(151) Middle East(262) novel(342) own(120) read(323) redemption(134) Roman(86) Taliban(246) TBR(92) unread(155) war(238)

Member recommendations

  1. infiniteletters recommends Houri by Mehrdad Balali
  2. susonagger recommends A Thousand Splendid Suns by Khaled Hosseini
  3. whitewavedarling recommends Dreams from My Father: A Story of Race and Inheritance by Barack Obama, "While these works may be in regard to entirely different cultures and nations, and one of fiction while the other is nonfiction, both are literary coming-of-age (see more) tales that are not only beautiful written, but relevant to today's issues and diversity, and memorable for their tales and messages."
  4. Yervant recommends The In-Between World of Vikram Lall by M.G. Vassanji
  5. Alliebadger recommends The Cellist of Sarajevo by Steven Galloway, "Both beautifully written accounts of atrocities we never really think about. Each one is a fast and amazing read."
  6. alzo recommends A Fine Balance by Rohinton Mistry
  7. Eustrabirbeonne recommends Les Cercueils de zinc by Svetlana Alexievitch
  8. Eustrabirbeonne recommends Par les monts et les plaines d'Asie centrale by Anne Nivat
  9. Eustrabirbeonne recommends La Supplication by Svetlana Alexievitch
  10. JanHeemskerk recommends Kamtsjatka by Marcelo Figueras

(see all 12 recommendations)

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Showing 1-5 of 572 (next | show all)
2007 ( )
  katiemertz | Nov 20, 2009 |
Good one... it'll make you think... Great story! ( )
  spywall | Nov 14, 2009 |
Depressing! ( )
  ccavaleri | Nov 12, 2009 |
This book has taken me quite a while to be able to review it. I had such mixed emotions after reading it. I loved the book, yet I hated it for what it stood for. I despised what happen to Hassan - trying to avoid reading it as if it would help him and I struggled with Amir and how he treated Hassan after the incident. Guilt and shame will do a lot of damage to a relationship and the struggle with it broke my heart. No matter how badly things become, there is always a chance for redemption. This book had me drawn in from the beginning, but really played with my emotions. ( )
  tweezle | Nov 9, 2009 |
Awesome! ( )
  ini_ya | Nov 7, 2009 |
Showing 1-5 of 572 (next | show all)
At times, the book suffers from relentless earnestness and somewhat hackneyed descriptions. But Hosseini has a remarkable ability to imprison the reader in horrific, shatteringly immediate scenes... The result is a sickening sensation of complicity.
added by Shortride | editTime, Aryn Baker (Sep 1, 2003)
 
This powerful first novel, by an Afghan physician now living in California, tells a story of fierce cruelty and fierce yet redeeming love.
 
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Series (with order)
Canonical Title
Original publication date
People/Characters
Important places
Important events
Awards and honors
Epigraph
Dedication
This book is dedicated to
Haris and Farah, both
the noor of my eyes,
and to the children
of Afghanistan.
First words
I became what I am today at the age of twelve, on a frigid overcast day in the winter of 1975.
Quotations
I see now that Baba was wrong, there is a God, there always had been. I see Him here, in the eyes of the people in this corridor of desperation. This is the real house of God, this is where those who have lost God will find Him, not the white masjid, with its bright diamond lights and towering minarets. There is a God, there has to be, and now I will pray, I will pray that He forgive that I have neglected Him all of these years, forgive that I have betrayed, lied, and sinned with impunity only to turn to him in my hour of need.
For you, a thousand times over.
Last words
Disambiguation notice
Publisher's editors
Blurbers
Book description
This novel presents life in Afghanistan before the revolution and the Russian invasion. The author describes the customs and culture of the Afghan people and the difficulty of immigrants trying to adapt to American life. Most of all, this is a story of friendship, family, betrayal, and redemption. There are intense images, but the book is very powerful and well-written. The 2007 movie was based on this book.

Amazon.com (ISBN 0747566534, Paperback)

In his debut novel, The Kite Runner, Khaled Hosseini accomplishes what very few contemporary novelists are able to do. He manages to provide an educational and eye-opening account of a country's political turmoil--in this case, Afghanistan--while also developing characters whose heartbreaking struggles and emotional triumphs resonate with readers long after the last page has been turned over. And he does this on his first try.

The Kite Runner follows the story of Amir, the privileged son of a wealthy businessman in Kabul, and Hassan, the son of Amir's father's servant. As children in the relatively stable Afghanistan of the early 1970s, the boys are inseparable. They spend idyllic days running kites and telling stories of mystical places and powerful warriors until an unspeakable event changes the nature of their relationship forever, and eventually cements their bond in ways neither boy could have ever predicted. Even after Amir and his father flee to America, Amir remains haunted by his cowardly actions and disloyalty. In part, it is these demons and the sometimes impossible quest for forgiveness that bring him back to his war-torn native land after it comes under Taliban rule. ("...I wondered if that was how forgiveness budded, not with the fanfare of epiphany, but with pain gathering its things, packing up, and slipping away unannounced in the middle of the night.")

Some of the plot's turns and twists may be somewhat implausible, but Hosseini has created characters that seem so real that one almost forgets that The Kite Runner is a novel and not a memoir. At a time when Afghanistan has been thrust into the forefront of America's collective consciousness ("people sipping lattes at Starbucks were talking about the battle for Kunduz"), Hosseini offers an honest, sometimes tragic, sometimes funny, but always heartfelt view of a fascinating land. Perhaps the only true flaw in this extraordinary novel is that it ends all too soon. --Gisele Toueg

(retrieved from Amazon Fri, 24 Apr 2009 07:57:51 -0400)

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