In The Kite Runner, a prize-winning first novel, author Khaled Hosseini slugs the literary equivalent of baseball’s grand-slam home run. The book won the Borders Original Voices Award and became a worthy New York Times bestseller.
Dedicated in part to the ravished children of Afghanistan, The Kite Runner (Bloomsbury Publishing, 2003, London, 340 pages) ripples with excitement and trembles with emotion. But most of all, it captivates with rich details about an impoverished, war-scarred and misunderstood nation.
For example, corrupt city officials’ “mustaches need oiling” and selected “pharmacies” sell whiskey as “medicine” hidden in brown paper bags. When a main character denounces religious zealots, he uses a memorable line: “Piss on the beards of all those self-righteous monkeys.”
Amir, the protagonist, grew up in Kabul, where the highlight and the ultimate tragedy of his childhood happen on the same day. Assisted by his friend Hassan, a family servant, Amir makes his father proud by winning a kite-fighting contest. When Hassan chases down the runner-up kite, something terrible happens, leaving the boys with emotional scars and a secret too terrible to share even with each other.
For decades, that childhood day haunts Amir. Even migrating to America fails to ease his torment. But at least he enjoys physical safety from the war in his homeland – until circumstances conspire to send him into danger, back to Kabul, a place he barely recognizes.
Born in Afghanistan in 1965, Hosseini soon moved to Paris where his father worked as a diplomat. The author, now a doctor in the U.S., attended university in California.
Approval rating: 88 per cent.
For more information: www.bloomsbury.com/khaledhosseini or www.khaledhosseini.com.
(October 31, 2006)
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