The Kite Runner - by Khaled Hosseini

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THE KITE RUNNER: Fiction (Winner of the 2006 and 2007 Penguin/Orange Readers' Group Prize).

AUTHOR: Khaled Hosseini (Born in Afghanistan. His family sought asylum in the USA in 1980. He is a doctor and lives in California. The Kite Runner is his first novel).

BEST SELLER(S): The Kite Runner and A Thousand Splendid Suns (Read review of this book by Maithili Here).

SYNOPSIS: 

1970s Afghanistan: Twelve-year old Amir is desperate to win the local kite-fighting tournament and his loyal friend Hassan promises to help him. But neither of the boys can foresee what will happen to Hassan that afternoon, an event that is to shatter their whole lives. After the Russians invade and the family is forced to flee to America. Amir realizes that one day he must return to an Afghanistan under Taliban rule to find the one thing that his new world cannot grant him - Redemption.

EXCERPT:

Do you want me to run that kite for you?

His Adam's apple rose and fell as he swallowed. The wind lifted his hair. I thought I saw him nod.

For you a thousand times over. 

I heard myself say.  Then I turned and ran.

It was only a smile, nothing more. It didn't make everything all right. It didn't make anything all right. Only a smile. A tiny thing. A leaf in the woods, shaking in the wake of the startled bird's flight.
But I'll take it. With open arms. Because when spring comes, it melts the snow one flake at a time, and may be I just witnessed the first flake melting.
I ran.

MSM Speaks: 

Fear always stops you from taking on an adventure.

That is what I've come to believe after reading one good book after another, by Khaled Hosseini. I wondered whether I'd be able to appreciate the nuance that surrounds Afghanistan and it's facets. But The Kite Runner has been an incredible journey of friendship, growing up, divisions that we create in our own hearts and relations that go beyond kinship. 


The Kite Runner is a story of two twelve year old boys - Amir, a Pashtun and Hassan, a Hazara, who are friends without any words but Master and Servant by societal norms. Hassan can die for Amir and proves his loyalty for his Amir Agha, brother, time and again whereas Amir on the other hand, strives for the attention of his too perfect father. Over their playful fights, Amir toys with Hassan who cannot read or write and realizes that Hassan would do anything Amir would ask him to - Thousand times over. In a cold cold winter, their lives change, when in a local kite running competition Amir wins, while Hassan helping him, loses his soul in an incident, which will change the course of destiny for both the boys. Their relationship changes as Amir moves on and starts living with his father, in America. A guilt from the past keeps shredding his heart into little pieces, when he finds himself standing on cross-roads - One would let him live the way he has been, with guilt, dying every moment and the Other, might lead him to the redemption he had been seeking. 

A painfully real story of two friends, who chose different paths, accepting the destiny as it comes. Love is something, the quest for which can change what could have been. Khaled Hosseini opens the portals to a world which has been greatly misrepresented and misunderstood. A must read for anyone to have a taste of real thoughtfulness - which can be savored like a vintage wine. MSM Recommends.


My rating: 5/5 *Must read!*

The Kite Runner@ Bloomsbury Publishing Ltd. London (U.K.)
ISBN 978-0-7475-6653-3
flipkart price: 263/- INR