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The Kite Runner (Unabridged)
 
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The Kite Runner (Unabridged) [Audio Download]

by Khaled Hosseini (Author, Narrator)
4.4 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (610 customer reviews)
List Price: £21.97
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Product details

  • Audio Download
  • Listening Length: 11 hours and 53 minutes
  • Program Type: Audiobook
  • Version: Unabridged
  • Publisher: Simon & Schuster Audio
  • Audible Release Date: 1 Aug 2003
  • Language: English
  • ASIN: B0045EJM7Y
  • Average Customer Review: 4.4 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (610 customer reviews)
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Product Description

Taking us from Afghanistan in the final days of its monarchy to the present, The Kite Runner is the unforgettable and beautifully told story of the friendship between two boys growing up in Kabul. Raised in the same household and sharing the same wet nurse, Amir and Hassan grow up in different worlds: Amir is the son of a prominent and wealthy man, while Hassan, the son of Amir's father's servant, is a Hazara - a shunned ethnic minority. Their intertwined lives, and their fates, reflect the eventual tragedy of the world around them. When Amir and his father flee the country for a new life in California, Amir thinks that he has escaped his past. And yet he cannot leave the memory of Hassan behind him.

The Kite Runner is a novel about friendship and betrayal, and about the price of loyalty. It is about the bonds between fathers and sons, and the power of fathers over sons - their love, their sacrifices, and their lies. Written against a backdrop of history that has not been told in fiction before, The Kite Runner describes the rich culture and beauty of a land in the process of being destroyed. But through the devastation, Khaled Hosseini offers hope for redemption.

©2003 Khaled Hosseini; (P)2003 Simon & Schuster Inc. All Rights Reserved. AUDIOWORKS. is an imprint of Simon & Schuster Audio Division. Simon & Schuster Inc.

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews
152 of 155 people found the following review helpful
By bobbewig TOP 500 REVIEWER
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!
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12 of 12 people found the following review helpful
A book with a soul 12 Oct 2006
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.
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24 of 25 people found the following review helpful
The Kite Runner 18 Jan 2006
By Ian
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
Published 22 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.
Published 22 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 25 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 2 months 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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