Kite Runner

Khaled Hosseini, an Afghan-American physician turned novelist writes about how quickly life can change, one moment can completely change the track for an entire lifespan. It is hard to believe that Kite Runner is the debut novel of Hosseini and he wrote it when he was just 38. He is a brilliant writer who can craft a realistic image of his home country through his tale of the life of a boy driven out of his country by betrayal and war, narrating the fall of what would be a prosperous country and the bitter communal conflicts.

Amir is young Afghani boy living in the Wazir Akbar Khan district of Kabul in the 1970s. He is the son of a businessman and philanthropist, and Amir spends his childhood trying to live up to his father’s expectations. Unfortunately, he is everything that his father does not want him to be; instead of sports he reads and writes and he can face conflicts only because he is usually defended by his best friend and house servant Hassan. The two boys share an inseparable bond despite being separated by ethnic groups, Amir being Pashtun and Hassan being Hazara.

The story takes nail-biting twists and turns, briefly adopting Dan Brown’s story-telling style. The final chapters, however, lack Brown’s finish, as the plot once again takes on a darker nature. Amir succeeds in liberating the young boy and bringing him to America, only to watch helplessly as the boy becomes suicidal and silent. He longs for his old life which Amir is unable to offer him, and the very life Amir may be responsible for ruining.

As Hosseini brings the novel to a close, his conclusions are explained in an old Zendagi Minzara saying: "Life goes on, unmindful of beginning or end… crisis or catharsis, moving forward like a slow dusty caravan of kochis."

Hosseini may have achieved a political goal by humanising a region still obscure in Western thought. He describes Afghanistan and its inhabitants as once a very modern, before outside forces rendered the nation a war-torn catastrophe. However, war and political conflict take the back seat to the human dramas that occur because of and more importantly, despite of such events. The author’s simple language is surprisingly effective in explaining the complexity of emotions, characters and dynamics which could exist in any culture.

 

@Amulet

For those who missed tis specacle, here it is

Partly true. Using abrasive threads called 'manja' thread is banned. But it still goes on. See this Amazon ad.

 

@Srama
My dear sabi
My Professor Google tells me:
The title of the book comes from a line in the Josephine Davis translation of the poem "Kabul",by the 17th-century Iranian poet Saib Tabrizi:

"Every street of Kabul is enthralling to the eye
Through the bazaars, caravans of Egypt pass
One could not count the moons that shimmer on her roofs
And the thousand splendid suns that hide behind her walls"

It is another great book by the writer. I read his Kite Runner as soon as it hit the Indian market.

That makes him the second to have that honour the first being ofcourse Richard Bach. You did not read Khaled Hosseini further probably because of your deep obsession with Richard Bach. Khaled is far too earthly!
Sri

 

@satchitananda
Khaled Hosseini is not required at all to prove that we have identical tastes!