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Product Description
Amazon.co.uk Review
The Kite Runner of Khaled Hosseini's deeply moving fiction debut is an illiterate Afghan boy with an uncanny instinct for predicting exactly where a downed kite will land. Growing up in the city of Kabul in the early 1970s, Hassan was narrator Amir's closest friend even though the loyal 11-year-old with "a face like a Chinese doll" was the son of Amir's father's servant and a member of Afghanistan's despised Hazara minority. But in 1975, on the day of Kabul's annual kite-fighting tournament, something unspeakable happened between the two boys.
Narrated by Amir, a 40-year-old novelist living in California, The Kite Runner tells the gripping story of a boyhood friendship destroyed by jealousy, fear, and the kind of ruthless evil that transcends mere politics. Running parallel to this personal narrative of loss and redemption is the story of modern Afghanistan and of Amir's equally guilt-ridden relationship with the war-torn city of his birth. The first Afghan novel to be written in English, The Kite Runner begins in the final days of King Zahir Shah's 40-year reign and traces the country's fall from a secluded oasis to a tank-strewn battlefield controlled by the Russians and then the trigger-happy Taliban. When Amir returns to Kabul to rescue Hassan's orphaned child, the personal and the political get tangled together in a plot that is as suspenseful as it is taut with feeling.
The son of an Afghan diplomat whose family received political asylum in the United States in 1980, Hosseini combines the unflinching realism of a war correspondent with the satisfying emotional pull of master storytellers such as Rohinton Mistry. Like the kite that is its central image, the story line of this mesmerizing first novel occasionally dips and seems almost to dive to the ground. But Hosseini ultimately keeps everything airborne until his heartrending conclusion in an American picnic park. --Lisa Alward, Amazon.ca --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.
Review
'Hosseini's ability to reach the core of experiences of love and loss places him in the company of such fine chroniclers of the new America as Chang-rae Lee. The Kite Runner is a first novel of unusual generosity, honesty and compassion' Independent 'The shattering first novel by Khaled Hosseini... a rich and soul-searching narrative ... a sharp, unforgettable taste of the trauma and tumult experienced by Afghanis as their country buckled' Observer 'A devastating, masterful and painfully honest story ... it is a novel of great hidden intricacy and wisdom, like a timeless Eastern tale. It speaks the most harrowing truth about the power of evil' Daily Telegraph 'Unforgettable ... extraordinary. It is so powerful that for a long time after everything I read seemed bland' Isabel Allende
--This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.
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Customer Reviews
Most Helpful Customer Reviews
152 of 155 people found the following review helpful
Format:Hardcover
When it was suggested that I read The Kite Runner, I put off doing so for a long time because I am primarily a "thriller/suspense/mystery" type-of-guy. That was a mistake that I'm glad I eventually corrected. The Kite Runner is an astonishing, powerful book that had me riveted from the first to the last page. It is a story of fierce cruelty and yet redeeming love, as well as of an intimate account of family and friendship. Both transform the life of Amir, the main character, who comes of age during the last peaceful days of the Afghani monarchy; just before Afghanistan's revolution and its invasion by Russian troops. Hosseini is a masterful writer whose prose and narrative style ooze emotion. If you have any hesitancy about reading this book, as I did, put your doubts aside and rush out to get yourself a copy of The Kite Runner. You'll be very glad you did. It is not only a book that will keep you from doing anything else but turning the pages, it is a book that will stay in your head and heart for years to come. It is that good!
12 of 12 people found the following review helpful
Format:Paperback
This book has the wisdom of an ancient arabic folk story and reads with the same nostalgia that the "Arabian nights" had.
The characters have such pathos that they remain with you long after you've put the book down. There are no central female characters and I am surprised that I did not miss this.
As you read this dark tale, you might think that it could not get any darker, vivid and simple descriptions of Taliban and other human cruelties are tossed in like sour sweets. The writer poetically explains what the morally right and courageous thing to do is, when faced with such cruelties, while remaining sympathetic to the human condition.
It is a rollercoaster of a read where the characters are as colourful and soar as high as a kite. Just as you think you might have guessed the outcome, the kite is cut down and you must race through to see if the sky will be reached again.
This is his first book but I hope it is not his last.
The characters have such pathos that they remain with you long after you've put the book down. There are no central female characters and I am surprised that I did not miss this.
As you read this dark tale, you might think that it could not get any darker, vivid and simple descriptions of Taliban and other human cruelties are tossed in like sour sweets. The writer poetically explains what the morally right and courageous thing to do is, when faced with such cruelties, while remaining sympathetic to the human condition.
It is a rollercoaster of a read where the characters are as colourful and soar as high as a kite. Just as you think you might have guessed the outcome, the kite is cut down and you must race through to see if the sky will be reached again.
This is his first book but I hope it is not his last.
24 of 25 people found the following review helpful
Format:Paperback
A wonderful book which pulls all the emotional strings, making you think that it is an autobiography. Maybe a touch too contrived towards the end but that is a tiny critiscism of one of the best books I have read in a long time. I hope they don't try and make a film of it, the characters should stay alive in the brilliant word pictures.
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Most Recent Customer Reviews
excellent but horrible
a must read to give real understanding between Sunni and shiite
compelling to start with and then can I go on as the read gets more difficult
compelling to start with and then can I go on as the read gets more difficult
Published 18 days ago by P. Wilsdon
Breathtaking.
Make your own conclusions about this book, the point is to read it of course.
I was moved beyond words and close to tears at times.
A wonderful book.
I was moved beyond words and close to tears at times.
A wonderful book.
Published 19 days ago by Ba88
Beautiful and heartbreaking
With the amount of reviews written for "The Kite Runner", its hard to add more than what has already been said about this novel. Read more
Published 22 days ago by LG
A tale about friendship, treason, loyalty and redemption
This book tells the life of Amir (main character, son of an affluent Afghan business man) and his relationship to Hassan (unconditional and loyal friend who lives with the servant... Read more
Published 1 month ago by Jose
Enlightening novel
Prior to reading the Kite Runner, all I knew of Afghanistan was what I saw on the news. Apart from being a rivetting story, the Kite Runner also filled me in on the history of the... Read more
Published 1 month ago by bookworm
Simply Overrated
It's necessary for A Level English Literature, it's a Number 1 bestseller in America, its won the hearts of millions and it has been given praise with no bounds on its... Read more
Published 1 month ago by Riffan
sustaining read
I travel a lot and when this book first came out it was all over the airports and I would pick it up and put it down thinking it was not for me. Read more
Published 1 month ago by Bar54bar
Heartwrenching
It's taken me awhile to read it but I am so glad I now have. I loved the characterisation of the two boys, Amir and Hassan, and their relationship with each other and with Baba and... Read more
Published 1 month ago by Ruby Roo
One of the best books I have ever read!
I absolutely loved this book. It's extremely gripping and I couldn't put it down once I had started reading it. Such a powerful novel and definitely worth a read!
Published 1 month ago by hannah23
Simplistic cliche written by someone who barely knows Afghanistan
This book is the Pringles tub of the fiction world; the flavours are entirely artificial, there's nothing to be achieved by making your way through it, but for some reason you... Read more
Published 2 months ago by Goose
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