The Kite Runner by Khaled Hosseini
Book – The Kite Runner by Khaled Hosseini
Genre – Historical Fiction, Drama
Rating – 5/5⭐
Book Review –
A novel that will melt your heart, make you cry and will easily pull and play with every string of your heart.
The Kite runner, Khaled Hosseini’s debut novel has sold multi-millions worldwide and has also been filmed. The story is devastating and inspiring; beautiful and horrific all at once. A deeply personal tale about how childhood choices affect our adult lives.
(You can also listen to my book review on YouTube – Click here. )
The book manages to put forth a moving and shattering stories of two boys who are kept in the darkness of secrecy, shame and bitterness of friendships and blood relationships adding up historic events from the Soviet invasion, the rule of the Taliban and 9/11. A story of a 12-year-old Amir through to his adulthood. The irony and the heart- breaking incidents of his life will make it impossible to leave the book half read.
Amir, now an adult looks back to his childhood, growing up as a privileged Phustan child in 1970s Kabul with his Baba, a proud business man. It was here he spent every day with his poor servant, Hassan the son of Ali who are both Hazaras.
The terror between these two friends starts right after the Kite Contest.
Amir, now in a search of redemption while he flies back to Pakistan when after his father’s friend Rahim Khan asks him to visit him unfolds more secrets that leaves him dry.
It’s horrific on a number of levels – Amir’s cowardice, Assef’s cruelty, Hassan’s victimisation, and the general feeling involved that a Hazara doesn’t deserve the respect in Afghanistan.
Will the tangled relations ever be sorted? Will Amir find a way to redeem all his betrayals to his baba, Ali and more than to anyone, to Hassan? Will Amir ever be able to confront Hassan again after all those time?
Adding an incisive, crystal examination of recent Afghan history in both America and the Middle East and the result is a complete work of literature that succeeds in exploring the culture of a previously obscure nation.
Few Quotes –
• And that’s the thing about people who mean everything they say. They think everyone else does too.
• For you a thousand times over.
• There is always a way to be good again.
• Stealing is the only crime. When you kill a man, you steal a life. When you cheat, you steal a right to fairness.
• Or may be, it was meant not to be.
