The Kite Runner - Softcover

KHALED HISSEINI

Softcover

ISBN 10: 1408850257 ISBN 13: 9781408850251

Publisher: BLOOMSBURY, 2013

Synopsis

About the booka story based predominantly in afghanisthan, the kite runner is about an uncanny friendship in the middle of a country which is on the verge of facing a major crisis while amir is the son of a wealthy wazir, hassans father works as the wazirs servant and he belongs to the despised hazara community they are closest of friends despite these differences amir enjoys flying kites and hassan, who has an unusual instinct of exactly where a downed kite will land, is his kite runnertheir peaceful life is destroyed when something unthinkable happens during the kabuls annual kite-fighting tournament something terrible happens to hassan while the russian invasion compels amirs family to move to america eventually one day amir returns to afghanistan to seek redemptiona story based on the time when the soviet unions attacks on afghanistan were rampant and the taliban regime was rising, the kite runner is deeply moving and thoroughly heart wrenching it provides a different perspective altogether on afghanistan with brilliant insights into different relations including pure friendship and a father-son relationshipthe kite runner is published by bloomsbury publishing india private limited and this is the 10th edition, published on 21 may 2013 and is available in paperbackkey features the kite runner maintained a number one position on the new york times bestseller list for over two years the book was adapted into a film in the year 2007

About this title

Review

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. --Gisele Toueg

From the Back Cover

"A wonderful work... This is one of those unforgettable stories that stay with you for years. All the great themes of literature and of life are the fabric of this extraordinary novel: love, honor, guilt, fear redemption...It is so powerful that for a long time everything I read after seemed bland." -- Isabel Allende
 
"Stunning . . . an incisive, perceptive examination of recent Afghan history. . . It is rare that a book is at once so timely and of such high literary quality." -- Publisher's Weekly

“In The Kite Runner, Khaled Hosseini gives us a vivid and engaging story that reminds us how long his people have been struggling to triumph over the forces of violence -- forces that continue to threaten them even today.” -- New York Times

“A haunting morality tale.” -- USA Today

“His passionate story of betrayal and redemption is framed by Afghanistan’s tragic recent past . . . Rather than settle for a coming-of-age or travails-of-immigrants story, Hosseini has folded them both into this searing spectacle of hard-won personal salvation. All this, and a rich slice of Afghan culture too: irresistible." -- Kirkus Reviews

“Like Gone with the Wind, this extraordinary first novel locates the personal struggles of everyday people in the terrible sweep of history.” -- People

“To many Western readers, [Afghanistan’s] can be an exhausting and bewildering history. But Hosseini extrudes it into an intimate account of family and friendship, betrayal and salvation that requires no atlas or translation to engage and enlighten us.” -- Washington Post

“Hosseini does tenderness and terror, California dream and Kabul nightmare with equal aplomb. . .a ripping yarn and ethical parable.” -- Globe and Mail

"A beautiful novel . . . a song in a new key. Hosseini is an exhilaratingly original writer with a gift for irony and a gentle, perceptive heart . . . one of the most lyrical, moving and unexpected novels of the year." -- Denver Post

About this edition

• Publisher: BLOOMSBURY
• Publication date: 2013
• ISBN 10: 1408850257
• ISBN 13: 9781408850251
• Binding: Paperback
• Number of pages: 344