Very moving story.

***

Description from Amazon.com -

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.

recieved from my mom

Thanks daughterofcokie! This one was highly recommended by my family, too, I''ve been after a copy for a while!

Oh wow, this was such a beautiful, sad, hard-hitting book. Made me cry, and not just in one place but again and again. And that''s saying something, I''m a hard-hearted little skeptic at the best of times... I read it pretty much in one day (evening and next morning), found I couldn''t put it down and had to know how the characters fared, even though I constantly feared the worst for them. This is a triumph for the author - he deserves every bit of praise he gets!

I agree that it''s hard to believe this was a novel and not a true story - but I guess Amir and Hassan''s story was probably one experienced by so many families in Afghanistan over the last 20 years. I am actually ashamed, I didn''t know much about this period of history (for instance no idea that Russia had invaded Afghanistan) and knew little of Afghanistan at all before the US military presence began in 2001. So this was all an eye-opener. And made me guiltily want to know more, so I have a little reading assignment now...

Anyways, this book''s now going up north to Freelunch, who I hope enjoys it as much as I did.

received today, thanks jennymidget :o)

on loan to LadyIndigo

arrived safely in orange ;-)

thanx so much freelunch for allowing me to read your copy ~ you are most generous

received safely back home today, thanks LadyIndigo (for the bookmarks too!)

this was a great read, heart-wrenching at times and (as has been observed above) easily mistaken for a memoir rather than a novel.

thanks again to jennymidget for sending it my way.

released to the COT Bookcrossing Zone

It was passed on to me by my daughter. I enjoyed it much more than I thought I would.

CAUGHT IN CAIRNS QUEENSLAND AUSTRALIA