Review: The Kite Runner by Khaled Hosseini

5 stars for The Kite Runner by Khaled Hosseini.

I bought this book so many years ago that I cannot remember when that was. Judging from the book cover stating 10th Anniversary Edition (March 2013), I would think I bought this book after Year 2014 or thereabout. I seldom peel off the price tag of books I bought and the one on this book is still intact on the back of the book cover all these years. With the help of AI, I managed to trace the exact month and year that I bought The Kite Runner. June 2017. Wow... almost ten years ago. Gosh.. I actually waited that many years to read this book after purchasing it.

The thing is - and I believe, most if not all, booklovers can resonate with me - after I own a copy of this book, I don't see the rush in reading it. Days turned into months. And months years. There were more than a couple of times I picked up this book with the intention of reading it, but somehow or other, the mood is not right and I ended up putting the book back where it belongs. On my bookshelf. Until now.

This is a thick-set paperback, but I never felt in any way that the story is long or even boring. The plot flows smoothly from the beginning to the end, with foreboding every now and then that keeps me on my toes.

The Afghanistan that I know today, based on what I have read since 911 twin towers attacks, is definitely not what I expected in the novel. It goes to show how much the country has changed since the 1960s as detailed in this book.

The Kite Runner is a novel but the book sure reads like a memoir. I am impressed by the way the author pens the story that feels so much more like reading a memoir (his memoir) than fiction. With real historical events in Afghanistan - the July 1973 bloodless coup where King Zahir Shah was overthrown by his cousin Daoud Khan that ended the King's forty-year peaceful reign, the 1979 Soviet invasion where thousands of Afghans fleed their homes to settle in neighboring Pakistan and Iran, the Afghan Civil War following the withdrawal of Soviet Troops in 1989 where rival factions fought for control of Kabul leading to widespread destruction and civilian suffering, and the rise of the Taliban that took power in 1996, imposing strict Islamic laws, oppressing women and infamously banning cultural practices such as kite fighting - weaved among a cast of fictional characters, the author explores what it means to be human.

The author drew from his own life when writing the book. Like the protagonist Amir, the author grew up in Kabul in a priviledged household, and his family sought political asylum in the United States during the Soviet occupation. However, the various characters, personal betrayals and story development involving Amir, Hassan, Baba, Ali and Sohrab are entirely fictitious.

As with most long novels, this book has its share of themes, the invisible current that runs beneath the surface of the story, pulling characters and readers alike towards a deeper truth. It tells not only the story of Amir, a young Afghan boy from Wazir Akbar Khan, Kabul, in Afghanistan, it is also a novel on friendship, kinship, social classes, guilt, lies, betrayals, secrets, regrets, forgiveness, redemption, hope, connection, acceptance and healing.

All in all, an unusual and remarkable debut novel.


Publisher: Riverhead Books
Publication date: 5 Mar 2013

*** Favourite Quote 1 ***

.. no matter what the mullah teaches, there is only one sin, only one. And that is theft. Every other sin is a variation of theft.

*** Favourite Quote 2 ***

.. as the trees froze and ice sheathed the roads, the chill between Baba and me thawed a little. And the reason for that was the kites. Baba and I lived in the same house, but in different spheres of existence. Kites were the one paper-thin slice of intersection between those spheres.

*** Favourite Quote 3 ***

.. theft was the one unforgivable sin, the common denominator of all sins. When you kill a man, you steal a life. You steal his wife's right to a husband, rob his children of a father. When you tell a lie, you steal someone's right to the truth. When you cheat, you steal the right to fairness. There is no act more wretched than stealing.

*** Favourite Quote 4 ***

It may be unfair, but what happens in a few days, sometimes even a single day, can change the course of a whole lifetime.

*** Favourite Quote 5 ***

.. I felt like a man who awakens in his own house and finds all the furniture rearranged, so that every familiar nook and cranny looks foreign now. Disoriented, he has to reevaluate his surroundings, reorient himself.

*** Favourite Quote 6 ***

.. lifting him from the certainty of turmoil and dropping him in a turmoil of uncertainty.

~ The Kite Runner
Khaled Hosseini

@}--->>--->>-----

The unforgettable, heartbreaking story of the unlikely friendship between a wealthy boy and the son of his father's servant, The Kite Runner is a beautifully crafted novel set in a country that is in the process of being destroyed. It is about the power of reading, the price of betrayal, and the possibility of redemption; and an exploration of the power of fathers over sons—their love, their sacrifices, their lies.

A sweeping story of family, love, and friendship told against the devastating backdrop of the history of Afghanistan over the last thirty years, The Kite Runner is an unusual and powerful novel that has become a beloved, one-of-a-kind classic.

The 10th anniversary edition of the New York Times bestseller and international classic loved by millions of readers.

*Blurb from Goodreads*

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