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The Kite Runner by: Khaled Hosseini

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Publisher: Bloomsbury Publishing PLC
Release date: 7th June, 2004
Media: Paperback

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Editorial Review

The Kite Runner of Khaled Hosseini's deeply moving fiction debut is an illiterate Afghan boy with an uncanny instinct for predicting exactly where a downed kite will land. Growing up in the city of Kabul in the early 1970s, Hassan was narrator Amir's closest friend even though the loyal 11-year-old with "a face like a Chinese doll" was the son of Amir's father's servant and a member of Afghanistan's despised Hazara minority. But in 1975, on the day of Kabul's annual kite-fighting tournament, something unspeakable happened between the two boys.

Narrated by Amir, a 40-year-old novelist living in California, The Kite Runner tells the gripping story of a boyhood friendship destroyed by jealousy, fear, and the kind of ruthless evil that transcends mere politics. Running parallel to this personal narrative of loss and redemption is the story of modern Afghanistan and of Amir's equally guilt-ridden relationship with the war-torn city of his birth. The first Afghan novel to be written in English, The Kite Runner begins in the final days of King Zahir Shah's 40-year reign and traces the country's fall from a secluded oasis to a tank-strewn battlefield controlled by the Russians and then the trigger-happy Taliban. When Amir returns to Kabul to rescue Hassan's orphaned child, the personal and the political get tangled together in a plot that is as suspenseful as it is taut with feeling.

The son of an Afghan diplomat whose family received political asylum in the United States in 1980, Hosseini combines the unflinching realism of a war correspondent with the satisfying emotional pull of master storytellers such as Rohinton Mistry. Like the kite that is its central image, the story line of this mesmerizing first novel occasionally dips and seems almost to dive to the ground. But Hosseini ultimately keeps everything airborne until his heartrending conclusion in an American picnic park. --Lisa Alward, Amazon.ca

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Average rating - (more reviews)

Rating: - Low brow

I found The Kite Runner pretty disappointing. It's been presented as a literary novel with the Daily Telegraph describing it as "a devastating, masterful and painfully honest story" and "a novel of great hidden intricacy and wisdom". But I didn't find it to be any of these things.

For me, The Kite Runner was merely the equivalent of one of those bland daytime TV movies. Everything that happened was signposted well ahead and Hosseini didn't shy away from telling his readers what they should feel. It's a cynical and manipulative written novel with cliched characters and plot turns that rarely surprised or impressed me.

It wasn't one for me, but many people clearly do like this kind of thing. Don't buy it if you prefer something a little more complex.

Rating: - Don't say I didn't warn you!

I came to this book with high expectations having read an interesting account of life in Afghanistan - The Bookseller of Kabul - and wanting to get more of a 'feel' for that country. However I found Kite Runner to be thoroughly disappointing, trite and shallow.

I did not get any sense of what life in Afghanistan is like, none of the characters were worth caring about and the plot got more and more embarassingly corny as it went on. Melodrama took the place of emotion, there was no subtlety whatsoever, nothing interesting, touching or clever. I am surprised how anyone could have liked this book, but I suppose it takes all sorts to make a world.

If you want a novel about Afghanistan forget Kite-Runner and try this little gem - Swallows of Kabul. It's hauntingly sad and really gets across the impact of the Taliban regime on ordinary people.

Rating: - Superb novel...

This novel is an absolute great. You get really into it from the start and do not want to put it down because it is both sad and uplifting with lots of emotion. You chart the life of a young Afghan's childhood, and later his life in America. Hosseini has really written a classic here. I would reccomend it to anyone aged 15 or over.

Rating: - Far worse than what I expected

I read this book after reading "Thousand splendid suns". I was disappointed with it but optimistic about the "Kite runner" due to the many good reviews that it got. I liked the "Kite runner" even less. The story is very melodramatic, the characters black and white, the stereotypes appaling: a (half)-German who reads biographies of Hitler, a gypsy who elopes, weak females who either die or are killed or abused, raped young males. Enough of this!

Rating: - Heartwrenching tale that will keep you gripped

I just finished reading this book and found that I was unable to put it down.

Probably not much else to say that hasn't already been said on here. Quite simply, this is a GREAT read!

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