book report the kite runner

• The Kite Runner

Khaled Hosseini

• Literature Notes
• Book Summary
• The Kite Runner at a Glance
• Character List
• Summary and Analysis
• Character Analysis
• Character Map
• About The Kite Runner
• Khaled Hosseini Biography
• Critical Essays
• Themes in The Kite Runner
• Symbols in The Kite Runner
• Full Glossary for The Kite Runner
• Cite this Literature Note

The Kite Runner is the story of Amir, a Sunni Muslim, who struggles to find his place in the world because of the aftereffects and fallout from a series of traumatic childhood events. An adult Amir opens the novel in the present-day United States with a vague reference to one of these events, and then the novel flashes back to Amir's childhood in Afghanistan. In addition to typical childhood experiences, Amir struggles with forging a closer relationship with his father, Baba; with determining the exact nature of his relationship with Hassan, his Shi'a Muslim servant; and eventually with finding a way to atone for pre-adolescent decisions that have lasting repercussions. Along the way, readers are able to experience growing up in Afghanistan in a single-parent home, a situation that bears remarkable similarities to many contemporary households.

One of the biggest struggles for Amir is learning to navigate the complex socioeconomic culture he faces, growing up in Afghanistan as a member of the privileged class yet not feeling like a privileged member of his own family. Hassan and his father, Ali, are servants, yet at times, Amir's relationship with them is more like that of family members. And Amir's father, Baba, who does not consistently adhere to the tenets of his culture, confuses rather than clarifies things for young Amir. Many of the ruling-class elite in Afghanistan view the world as black and white, yet Amir identifies many shades of gray.

In addition to the issues affecting his personal life, Amir must also contend with the instability of the Afghan political system in the 1970s. During a crucial episode, which takes place during an important kite flying tournament, Amir decides not to act — he decides not to confront bullies and aggressors when he has the chance — and this conscious choice of inaction sets off a chain reaction that leads to guilt, lies, and betrayals. Eventually, because of the changing political climate, Amir and his father are forced to flee Afghanistan. Amir views coming to America as an opportunity to leave his past behind.

Although Amir and Baba toil to create a new life for themselves in the United States, the past is unable to stay buried. When it rears its ugly head, Amir is forced to return to his homeland to face the demons and decisions of his youth, with only a slim hope to make amends.

Ultimately, The Kite Runner is a novel about relationships — specifically the relationships between Amir and Hassan, Baba, Rahim Khan, Soraya, and Sohrab — and how the complex relationships in our lives overlap and connect to make us the people we are.

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'The Kite Runner' by Khaled Hosseini - Book Review

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The Kite Runner by Khaled Hosseini is one of the best books I have read in years. This is a page turner with complex characters and situations that will make you think hard about friendship, good and evil, betrayal, and redemption. It is intense and contains some graphic scenes; however, it is not gratuitous. A great book by many measures.

Reading The Kite Runner by Khaled Hosseini

On one level, The Kite Runner by Khaled Hosseini is the story of two boys in Afghanistan and Afghan immigrants in America. It is a story set in a culture that has become of increasing interest to Americans since the September 11, 2001, attacks. It also explores the history of the rise of the Taliban in Afghanistan. On this level, it provides a good way for people to learn more about Afghan history and culture in the context of the story.

Looking at The Kite Runner as a story about culture, however, misses what the book is really about. This is a novel about humanity. This is a story about friendship, loyalty, cruelty, longing for acceptance, redemption, and survival. The core story could be set in any culture because it deals with issues that are universal.

The Kite Runner looks at how the main character, Amir, deals with a secret in his past and how that secret shaped who he became. It tells of Amir's childhood friendship with Hassan, his relationship with his father and growing up in a privileged place in society. I was drawn in by Amir's voice. I sympathized with him, cheered for him and felt angry with him at different points. Similarly, I became attached to Hassan and his father. The characters became real to me, and it was difficult for me to put the book down and leave their world.

I highly recommend this book, especially for book clubs. For those of you who are not in a reading group, read it and then loan it to a friend. You are going to want to talk about it when you finish.

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The Kite Runner

91 pages • 3 hours read

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Chapter Summaries & Analyses

Chapters 1-3

Chapters 4-6

Chapters 7-9

Chapters 10-13

Chapters 14-17

Chapters 18-19

Chapters 20-23

Chapters 24-25

Character Analysis

Symbols & Motifs

Important Quotes

Essay Topics

Discussion Questions

Summary and Study Guide

Khaled Hosseini’s debut novel, The Kite Runner , was published in 2003, two years after the events of the September 11 terrorist attacks on the World Trade Center in New York and the US invasion of Afghanistan. Hosseini, the son of a diplomat for the Afghan Foreign Ministry, was born in Kabul, Afghanistan, and relocated to France as a child. When Afghanistan was thrown into turmoil by the Soviet occupation at the height of the Cold War, Hosseini’s family was granted asylum in the United States and settled in San Jose, California. Decades later, upon reading that the Taliban had outlawed kite fighting in Afghanistan, Hosseini penned a short story he later expanded into the novel The Kite Runner . This study guide is based on the 2020 Kindle edition of the book.

In The Kite Runner , Hosseini uses his intimate knowledge of the culture, its customs, and its people to break down stereotypical depictions of Afghanistan in Western media. Framed as a story of fathers and sons, the novel explores the region’s turbulent history of ground wars following the fall of the monarchy through to the Taliban control, illustrating and defining the lives of Afghani people interrupted by war.

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Plot Summary

The narrative follows two friends, Amir—who narrates in the first person—and Hassan . Although they do not know it when the narrative begins, Amir and Hassan are half-brothers by the same father, Baba , who lied to hide a secret affair he had with his servant’s wife. Hassan is an ethnic Hazara and a Shi’a Muslim, while Amir, the protagonist , is Pashtun. Although they exist in separate strata of society, the two are inseparable. When Amir runs afoul of Assef , a blond, blue-eyed Pashtun, Hassan appears from behind Amir with his slingshot and threatens to take Assef’s left eye if he does not leave them alone. This encounter begins a cycle of violence that cascades through the novel, spanning out into their adult lives.

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In the wintertime in Kabul, neighborhood children compete in a kite fighting tournament wherein kite fighters position their glass string to cut rival kites out of the sky. Kite runners chase the last kite of a tournament, a coveted trophy. When Amir wins the kite fighting tournament in the winter of 1975, Amir and Hassan are briefly separated in the frenzy of celebration. Amir finds Hassan cornered in a blind alley by Assef, having run the last kite. Assef pins and rapes Hassan, but Amir never intervenes and never tells anyone, consumed by his want of the kite—in his eyes , a token through which he can gain Baba’s affection.

Unable to cope with his secret guilt, Amir distances himself from Hassan. However, Hassan and his father, Ali , are a constant presence as they tend the grounds of Baba’s home. As Amir’s guilt intensifies, he frames Hassan for theft—a sin Baba has told him is the worst of all sins. When Baba confronts Ali and Hassan about the stolen contraband, Amir is shocked to hear Hassan confess to the theft. Hassan’s false confession is his final act of loyalty to Amir. Despite Baba’s immediate forgiveness, Ali says that living in Baba’s home has become impossible. Although Baba begs them to stay, Baba and Amir never see Ali or Hassan alive again. 

Amir and Baba flee Afghanistan following a destructive Russian invasion in the 1980s, relocating in California. In 2001, Amir learns from Baba’s friend and business partner that Hassan returned to Baba’s house in the late 1980s but was executed by the Taliban, orphaning his young son, Sohrab . When Rahim Khan tells Amir that Hassan was his half-brother, Amir decides he has no other recourse but to journey back to Kabul to retrieve his nephew. 

Amir returns to Kabul and finds that the Afghanistan of his childhood has been battered into a dangerous war zone patrolled by vicious Taliban extremists. He learns Sohrab has been sold into sexual slavery, purchased by a brutal Taliban official who regularly preys on children at a dilapidated warehouse converted into an orphanage. Amir’s guide arranges a meeting with the Taliban official, bringing Amir face to face with an old nemesis, Assef, who believes he has been chosen by God to ethnically purify Afghanistan. Amir offers to pay for Sohrab, but Assef means to make good on his threat to meet Amir in combat, stating that he can leave with Sohrab only after they fight to the death. In the struggle, Amir is gravely wounded, but Sohrab saves him with a slingshot that he fires into Assef’s left eye. 

After Amir recovers in a hospital, he promises Sohrab he will not allow him to go back to an orphanage. However, the legal path to bringing Sohrab to the United States is murky. After a meeting with an immigration lawyer, Amir decides his best chance at leaving Afghanistan with Sohrab is to place him in an orphanage and file a petition. Sohrab is frantic at the news. Soon, however, Amir learns that he can petition Sohrab’s visa after the boy arrives in America. Overjoyed, Amir rushes to tell Sohrab the good news but finds Sohrab has cut his wrists.

In the hospital, Sohrab recovers, but he is stricken with the various traumas of his life and will no longer speak. In America, Amir and his wife, Soraya, adopt Sohrab, but Sohrab is despondent. Amir brings Sohrab on a family outing to join fellow Afghans for a communal cookout to play Afghan music and fly kites following the events of September 11, 2001. A small tournament of kite fighters has formed, and Amir buys a kite for Sohrab. Sohrab is cautious at first but obviously intrigued. When they cut a kite down together, Amir asks Sohrab if he would like him to run it for him, prompting Sohrab to fleetingly smile—a sign of hope in a novel about childhoods disrupted by violence and trauma.

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The Kite Runner

Khaled hosseini, ask litcharts ai: the answer to your questions.

Welcome to the LitCharts study guide on Khaled Hosseini's The Kite Runner . Created by the original team behind SparkNotes, LitCharts are the world's best literature guides.

The Kite Runner: Introduction

The kite runner: plot summary, the kite runner: detailed summary & analysis, the kite runner: themes, the kite runner: quotes, the kite runner: characters, the kite runner: symbols, the kite runner: theme wheel, brief biography of khaled hosseini.

Historical Context of The Kite Runner

Other books related to the kite runner.

• Full Title: The Kite Runner
• When Written: 2001-2003
• Where Written: Mountain View, California
• When Published: 2003
• Literary Period: Contemporary literature
• Genre: Historical fiction, Drama
• Setting: Kabul, Afghanistan, Pakistan (mostly Peshawar), and San Francisco Bay Area, California
• Climax: Amir’s fight with Assef
• Antagonist: Assef
• Point of View: First person limited, from Amir’s point of view

Extra Credit for The Kite Runner

Kites. Hosseini was inspired to write a short story that would later become The Kite Runner when he heard that the Taliban had banned kites in Afghanistan. This seemed especially cruel and personal to him, as Hosseini, like Amir, grew up flying kites in Kabul.

Sohrab. Like Amir and Hassan, the young Hosseini’s favorite literary character was the tragic son Sohrab from the ancient Persian poem Shahnameh .

“The Kite Runner” by Khaled Hosseini Book Report

Introduction.

Betrayal is a universal human experience that we don’t typically think about, but that permeates the book The Kite Runner by Khaled Hosseini. Although we are all likely to experience betrayal at some point in our lives, Hosseini also provides us with a means of defeating it through loyalty and love. This is what quality literature is supposed to do as it explores universal truths of the human experience by focusing on a particular character or set of characters that are placed in a setting conducive to relating the author’s ideas. In other words, by telling the story of a particular character, the author is able to pull out elements of the story that are experienced by many people around the world. In helping his character find peace and direction, the author allows the reader to make their own personal identification with the character so, as the main character finally reaches the happy conclusion, the reader may be able to also find pathways to the kind of peace and direction they have been seeking. In realizing some of the mistakes and foolish thinking found in the character, the reader is able to identify some of these same traits in themselves and thus be more able to make positive changes. Whether the author does this intentionally or not, this tends to be the case if the human condition of the character is fully explored as it is in Housseini’s book. In many ways, the culture and heritage of the author are also reflected as the important issues to the culture become the important issues to the author because they have an effect on how the author, and the other people who share his world, experience life.

When this literature makes it into the hands of people who do not share this same culture, either because the passage of time has served to shift people’s perspectives or the crossing of borders has introduced new thoughts, the reader is able to gain a closer understanding of how others might see the world differently. As a result of this seemingly contradictory combination of foreign importance and shared experience, a new understanding seems to blossom in which the terrifying aspects of the foreign melt away into the common experience of being simply human. Just like the reader, the character and others of his or her culture are seen to be attempting to discover clear definition in a world that is constantly changing and in which there are no clear lines. This is the impression received when one reads a book such as this one. A summary of the story and a quick investigation of the history of the region reveal that betrayal played a significant role in the national and personal lives of Afghanistan. At the same time, a more in-depth look at the betrayal found within the story demonstrates how love and loyalty can defeat the pain betrayal leaves behind. The experience of the story on the typical English-speaking reader, as they are first introduced to a mostly foreign culture in the pages of the book, also serves to demonstrate the way in which love and persistence can bridge the gap of many misunderstandings. The Kite Runner explores the culture and history of Afghanistan through the eyes of its central character, showing how the pain of betrayal has long arms but the love of loyalty can save.

The story begins when the narrator, Amir, is supposedly 38 years old and the tale he tells is essentially a flashback over the events of his life that have brought him to this point. Amir reveals the affluent lifestyle he lived as a child in a sprawling mansion with just his father who was served by a Hazara servant named Ali. Amir’s mother had died giving birth to him and he always felt his father held that somewhat against him although it was never explicitly stated. The infant nursed on the breast of a servant woman who was also hired a year later to nurse Ali’s son Hassan and the two boys, who had fed from the same breast, grew up together on Baba’s property. Although life was sweet, it had its darker elements, such as the near-slave status of the Hazara people, including Hassan, and the cruelty that lurked in the hearts of schoolmates of Amir’s such as Assef. It is Assef who brings about the life-changing event just as Amir is about to win his father’s approval for winning the kite fight. Hassan, as the kite runner, goes to collect the winning kite but is detained by Assef and his friends. Amir finds his friend cornered in an alley just before Assef decides to rape him. Although Hassan had once stood up for Amir in this type of situation, Amir hides behind the wall and then pretends he was unaware of what happened. Because of his guilt and shame, Amir contrives to get rid of Hassan by framing him for robbery. Although this doesn’t cause Baba to send Hassan away, Ali takes Hassan away anyway and Amir is left alone with his guilt.

After setting up these important foundational elements of his life, Amir relates how his life was turned upside down again when the Russians invade Afghanistan. Baba and Amir manage to escape the country by traveling to Pakistan and then on to America. They settle in a run-down apartment in California and take up a subsistence style lifestyle. Amir attends junior college while Baba works at a convenience store. They haunt garage sales on Saturdays and attempt to sell trash things on Sundays at a swap meet. This is where Amir meets Soraya, the daughter of another prominent Afghan citizen made poor by the war. As Amir begins his writing career, his father is diagnosed with terminal lung cancer. His last significant act before he dies is he asks Soraya’s father for her hand in marriage to Amir. The newlyweds care for the ailing father until he dies and then they spend many happy years together as Amir’s career grows and Soraya works as a schoolteacher. Their one regret is that they are unable to have children. This idyllic existence is brought to a close when Amir receives a phone call from his father’s old friend Rahim Khan. Amir must travel back to Pakistan to learn what the dying Rahim wishes to tell him.

When he arrives, Amir learns that Ali had been killed long ago by a land mine and Hassan had married a woman and moved back to the servant’s hut he lived in as a boy. The couple had a stillborn daughter followed by a healthy son, but Hassan and his wife were killed when they refused to give up Amir’s house to the Taliban. The son, Sohrab, was taken to an orphanage. Rahim charges Amir with the task of recovering Hassan’s son. In the process, Rahim reveals that Hassan was Amir’s half-brother and hints that he knows what happened when the boys were 12. Amir enters Taliban-controlled territory and undergoes a number of trials including being beaten nearly to death to recover the unhappy Sohrab who has been sold into child prostitution to Assef. Eventually Amir succeeds in adopting Sohrab and bringing him back to California. Although Sohrab hasn’t talked for a year, since his last suicide attempt, Amir has finally managed to make a connection with him through the simple process of flying a kite together and is rewarded with a lopsided smile that reminds Amir of Hassan.

History Reveals Core of Betrayal

For a reader unfamiliar with Afghan history, the timeline of what is happening in the greater political realm is difficult to follow as it takes place largely in the background of the main character’s awareness. However, it exists as a macrocosm of the sense of betrayal and need for recovery discovered in the personal story of the two boys. In other words, when the betrayal found in the life of this single family is expanded to incorporate the entire country, the issues found within Afghani history are suggested to be the result. When men betray each other, entire nations are torn apart. This connection would be obvious if the story were to take place in Victorian England, for instance, a period that most readers recognize as being a time of tremendous change and transition into the machine-age. Understanding how these concepts play into the action of a story such as Charles Dickens’ novel Dombey and Son is thus no special trick. However, when these kinds of historical influences are largely unfamiliar to the reader, it is easy to lose track of the fact that Amir’s story occurs in the very recent past instead of centuries ago and that it also reflects the socio-political environment from which it came.

Discovering the history of Afghanistan in the past half century in a concise presentation of facts, though, emphasizes the degree of confusion that impacted the country during Amir’s childhood and the degree to which betrayal played a central role in tearing the country apart. According to the BBC News, “Afghanistan’s descent into conflict and instability in recent times began with the overthrow of the king in 1973” (Afghanistan, 2000). This occurred when Mohammad Daoud deposed his cousin, Zahir Shah, and declared himself president of Afghanistan in 1973. This is mentioned specifically in the novel as being a moment of irrevocable change much like that experienced on the personal level when Amir betrays Hassan by not defending him in the alley at age 12. During his presidency, Daoud was busy putting down the Islamists, but he truly began losing his power when he attempted to reduce the Soviet influence in his country. There is another parallel here as Hosseini presents various failed attempts by Amir to remove Hassan from his life. Things were already tense between the various political factions when the Parchamite leader Mir Akbar Khaiber was murdered on April 17, 1978. It was this murder that sparked the fires that had been threatening. “Whoever killed him, Khaiber’s martyrdom touched off an unprecedented popular upheaval. More than fifteen thousand angry, slogan-shouting mourners turned out for his funeral procession two days later, an extraordinarily large crowd by Afghan standards” (Cordovez & Harrison 24). Hassan’s eventual departure was quiet, but not any less upsetting and is also marked by a form of martyrdom. Daoud’s reaction only served to enflame the situation and the communist party managed to take control in what is called the April Revolution. Infighting in the party led to instability at the top, though, and the Soviet Army took control in 1979. “The Soviet occupation, which lasted until the final withdrawal of the Red Army in 1989, was a disaster for Afghanistan. About a million Afghans lost their lives as the Red Army tried to impose control for its puppet Afghan government. Millions more fled abroad as refugees” (Afghanistan, 2000). It was as part of this great flight that Amir and his father leave Afghanistan.

Betrayal of the Father

The crime of betrayal, as well as the degree to which it infects the culture and the personal lives of the characters is made clear as Baba tries to instruct his son on the single most important rule to remember when dealing with people or considering religious position. Baba tells Amir, “There is only one sin, only one. And that is theft. Every other sin is a variation of theft … When you kill a man, you steal a life. You steal his wife’s right to a husband, rob his children of a father. When you tell a lie, you steal someone’s right to the truth. When you cheat, you steal the right to fairness” (Hosseini, 2009). With this statement, Baba reveals to some degree the depth of guilt he must have felt as a result of his own betrayal of his lifelong friend, Ali. Within the story, the character Ali has been raised side by side with Baba even though he was Hazara in much the same way that Amir and Hassan are raised together. Although Baba is given modern living quarters and a decent education, Ali has suffered from the effects of oppression and a lack of education, yet he serves Baba like a brother. In spite of their close relationship, though, Baba obviously had no problem stealing Ali’s wife’s affections soon after his own wife died in childbirth as Hassan was born approximately one year after Amir. Although it was well within his power to do so, Baba perpetuates the values of his society by never teaching Ali how to read and never providing him with a more comfortable home than the small shack he shares with Hassan on Baba’s property. There is no evidence that he made any attempt to take Ali and Hassan with them to America or otherwise ever made any effort to make their lives better once they left the house. While they were raised like brothers, Baba ensures that there remains a clear distinction made between himself and the Hazara that is passed down to the next generation.

Baba may not have always been true in his adult relationships with others, but that does not mean he was not understood and loved in spite of his faults. His relationship with Rahim Khan reveals this aspect of the older man’s character as it is often Rahim Khan that smoothes understanding between Amir and his father. As Rahim Khan is dying and sending Amir on his way to rescue Hassan’s son, he gives Amir some insight into his father’s character when he tells him, “I think that everything he did, feeding the poor, giving money to friends in need, it was all a way of redeeming himself. And that, I believe, is what true redemption is, Amir jan, when guilt leads to good” (Hosseini, 2003). Baba stands in high esteem among his contemporaries in Afghanistan, enough that he is able to retain some of his honor upon transferring himself and Amir to America. It is largely based on Baba’s reputation that Amir is able to win the general’s approval in seeking his wife’s hand in marriage.

Perhaps the most betrayed character in the story is Hassan, who is not only betrayed by Amir, but has first suffered an equally great betrayal by the one man most obligated to protect him. While Hassan’s behavior may seem unrealistic in the western world, the extreme racism and persecution carried throughout the book reveals that only at Baba’s house is Hassan able to experience anything like what we would consider a ‘normal’ childhood. Amir himself points out how his first word was Baba to reflect his adoration of his father, but Hassan’s first word was Amir. While this would seem to indicate that Hassan was the recipient of his father’s protection and love, Baba was careful to keep his true identity hidden from everyone, especially the two boys. This robbed them both of a brother and Hassan of the proper rights and benefits of being his father’s son. However, the guilt of this knowledge drives a wedge between Baba and Amir that Amir is never quite able to understand until Hassan’s lineage is finally made clear.

Betrayal of the Son

Amir as a boy is not seen to work through his internal battles too much as his major conflict through most of his young life is his presumption that his father is disappointed in him – as discussed, the result of Baba’s guilt in having to raise his boys so differently. Despite having a strong desire to discover a connection between himself and his father, there are several ways in which Amir betrays his father. This begins with Amir’s birth in which Baba’s prized Afghan princess is killed in the birthing process, but continues with Amir’s failure to live up to his father’s expectations for a boy. Amir has little interest in the sports his father loves and demonstrates very little in the way of Baba’s ‘machismo’ persona.

Although Baba dreams of his son becoming a powerful man someday, perhaps in business or as a doctor in America, Amir remains true to his desire to become a writer. It is a dream he develops as a child in Afghanistan that he refuses to relinquish just because it is an uncertain career or a risky pursuit. This is not to say that he has a weak or noncompetitive character, however. He proves this as he seemingly seamlessly adjusts to the deprivations of America as compared to his former lifestyle and devotes all his time and effort to helping his father eke out an existence with no complaint yet remains firmly devoted to his goal of becoming a writer.

Betrayal Between Brothers

Hassan is always humble, always loyal and always grateful for what he has, for example. “Young Hassan, I agree, is an idealized figure, but that seems understandable given that the narrator is Amir. Amir’s guilt, and his discovery of a deeper connection to the boy than he had imagined, seems to call for that approach to the character. It is ironic, too, given that Hassan looked up to Amir in a way that went beyond the master/servant relationship” (Champ, 2008).

Childhood rape

“There is nothing that haunts Amir more than the betrayal of Hassan after the kite running competition, as can be seen in Amir’s valiant defense of Hassan’s son in his journey to Kabul” (Wood, 2009).

Framing for robbery

“Amir, instead of facing the cowardice of his decision, simply treats Hassan as the Hazara Afghan history says he is instead of reminding himself of how many times Hassan has defended him” (Wood, 2009).

Amir’s growing ability to hold firm to his convictions is seen as a result of the lingering guilt he still feels regarding his old friend, Hassan. In the last segment of the book, when he is asked to place himself in great danger to rescue Hassan’s son, Amir does not fail to do what’s right, which is now fully in character as a result of his earlier development. “Astoundingly, we read that Amir is also able to transcend his father’s sins that created dysfunctional childhood familial relationships. Amir’s marriage to a beautiful Afghan mirrors that of his father’s marriage, but in that sense only. His refusal to appease his wife’s father, the former Afghan general, by perpetuating an ethnic superiority complex, illustrates a sincere commitment to repent past transgressions” (Wood, 2009).

A surface reading of this book may make many people determine that it has little or no direct application to a modern American life. After all, there is little likelihood that our country will soon undergo the tremendous shifts in power base that was seen in Afghanistan during the time period of this book. However, the underlying themes of development, betrayal and survival are applicable to anyone anywhere. The Kite Runner is a book that offers its readers a great deal of insight into elements of life that we may otherwise be unaware of. This is true in the degree to which the author is able to introduce us into the culture and history of his birth country. Rather than battling with our natural suspicion and avoidance of the subject, Hosseini eases us into the subject by involving us in the intimate lives of two young boys born on opposite sides of a racial divide – something most Americans are still sorely conscious of having occurred in our own south not so long ago. More than just introducing us to his people and the issues they’ve faced as a nation, Hosseini makes this personal to us and begins to introduce us to ourselves in the process. His lengthy digressions into his own impressions serve to show us how it’s done and remind us that it’s something that should be done once in a while as a means of staying true to one’s heart. While his character had a constant guilty reminder to keep him aware of his actions and their consequences, most of us don’t need to think about it so consistently and often let it slip. When we suddenly find ourselves drifting far from our intended course or lost in unfamiliar waters, we have a difficult time adjusting because we are not grounded within ourselves. Ultimately, the book teaches us how to know ourselves through learning about others.

Works Cited

“Afghanistan’s Turbulent History.” BBC News. (2000). Web.

Champ, Bob. “Review: The Kite Runner.” Derkeiler. (2008). Web.

Cordovez, Diego & Selig S. Harrison. Out of Afghanistan: The Inside Story of the Soviet Withdrawal. Oxford: Oxford University Press, 1995.

Hosseini, Khaled. The Kite Runner. New York: Riverhead Books, 2003.

Wood, Michael A. “The Kite Runner: Khaled Hosseini’s Tale of Betrayal, Trial and Redemption.” Associated Content. (2009). Web.

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KHALED HOSSEINI

The kite runner.

Overview The New York Times bestseller and international classic loved by millions of readers. The unforgettable, heartbreaking story of the unlikely friendship between a wealthy boy and the son of his father’s servant, The Kite Runner is a beautifully crafted novel set in a country that is in the process of being destroyed. It is about the power of reading, the price of betrayal, and the possibility of redemption; and an exploration of the power of fathers over sons—their love, their sacrifices, their lies. A sweeping story of family, love, and friendship told against the devastating backdrop of the history of Afghanistan over the last thirty years, The Kite Runner is an unusual and powerful novel that has become a beloved, one-of-a-kind classic. Excerpt Discussion Questions

“An astonishing, powerful book.” — Diane Sawyer

“This powerful first novel, by an Afghan physician now living in California, tells a story of fierce cruelty and fierce yet redeeming love…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.” —The New York Times Book Review

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

“Poignant… The Kite Runner  offers a moving portrait of modern Afghanistan, from its pre-Russian-invasion glory days through the terrible reign of the Taliban.” —Entertainment Weekly  (Grade: A)

“A marvelous first novel… an incredible story of the culture. It’s an old-fashioned kind of novel that really sweeps you away.” —San Francisco Chronicle

“A powerful book…no frills, no nonsense, just hard, spare prose…an intimate account of family and friendship, betrayal and salvation that requires no atlas or translation to engage and enlighten us. Parts of The Kite Runner are raw and excruciating to read, yet the book in its entirety is lovingly written.” —The Washington Post Book World  

“ The Kite Runner , Hosseini’s first novel, is more than just good writing. It is also a wonderfully conjured story that offers a glimpse into an Afghanistan most Americans have never seen, and depicts a side of humanity rarely revealed.” —The Philadelphia Inquirer  

Originally screened in theaters on December 14, 2007 the film, directed by Marc Forster is an adaptation of Khaled Hosseini’s novel of the same title, The Kite Runner. The screen adaptation was performed by David Benioff. Set in Afghanistan, the film was mostly shot in Kashgar, China for safety reasons. The majority of the film is in Dari with subtitles or English. In 2007, the film was nominated for a Golden Globe Award for Best Foreign Language Film and the film’s score, by Alberto Iglesias, was nominated for Best Original Score at both the Golden Globes and Academy Awards. The DVD was released on March 25, 2008.

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The Kite Runner

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• Table Of Contents

The Kite Runner , novel by Khaled Hosseini , published in 2003. It follows the journey of Amir, a young boy from Kabul , and is set against the tumultuous background of Afghanistan ’s history, from the fall of the monarchy through to the rise of the Taliban regime. The novel delves into the themes of guilt, redemption, and the enduring effects of childhood experiences. It was adapted into a 2007 Hollywood film of the same name.

Khaled Hosseini, who was born in 1965, grew up in Kabul and moved with his family to California in 1980 (from Paris, where his father had worked at the Afghan embassy since 1976) shortly after the Soviet invasion of Afghanistan , he and his family having been granted political asylum by the United States . He received a medical degree in 1993. In 2001 Hosseini began working on The Kite Runner , writing early in the morning before heading to his medical practice .

The Kite Runner was widely popular and was eventually published in more than three dozen countries. In 2005 it reached the top position on The New York Times paperback bestseller list. Film and stage adaptations appeared in 2007. The Kite Runner ’s success allowed Hosseini to turn to writing full-time; his second and third novels are also closely tied to Afghanistan.

The Kite Runner chronicles the journey of Amir from the 1970s. Amir’s father, whom Amir calls Baba, is a wealthy and respected Afghan businessman, and their upper-class status is reflected in their large house and comparatively lavish lifestyle. Amir and Baba have two servants, Ali and his son, Hassan, who live in a small shack within their property’s compound . Ali and Hassan are Hazaras , an ethnic minority in Afghanistan, and they face considerable discrimination throughout the book.

The first part of the novel details Amir’s close relationship with Hassan. Amir’s first-person account describes his idyllic childhood, filled with skipping stones, reading Afghan folktales, and flying kites . Hassan is skilled at using a sling , and he acts as kite runner for Amir—which means that he retrieves fallen kites that Amir has brought down during kite fights, a sport in which the goal is to cut opponents’ kite strings by using one’s own and to be the owner of the last kite flying. Despite Hassan’s low social status and his lack of education, Amir harbors a deep-seated jealousy toward Hassan because of the attention he receives from Baba. Amir teases Hassan and mocks him for not being able to read. Amir’s own sense of inadequacy is compounded as Hassan demonstrates acts of selfless bravery to protect Amir against several childhood bullies, a bravery that Amir wishes he could emulate.

One day Amir wins a kite-fighting tournament, and Hassan runs off to retrieve the last fallen kite. Amir witnesses the brutal rape of Hassan in an alleyway by the very same childhood bullies Hassan had defended him against, and Amir’s inaction to help his friend results in his own internal shame and personal resentment. Amir’s shame in turn leads to his framing Hassan for theft, resulting in Ali and Hassan’s obligatory resignation and departure as household servants.

The narrative then follows Amir and Baba as they leave Afghanistan in 1981 in the aftermath of the 1979 Soviet invasion and eventually seek refugee status in Fremont , California. Amir and Baba’s journey depicts the isolation and struggle associated with the migrant experience, while Amir continues to be haunted by his betrayal of Hassan. Amir attends university and falls in love with Soraya, the daughter of Afghan migrant parents with a similar tale of immigration. Baba is diagnosed with an advanced form of cancer but witnesses the marriage of Amir and Soraya a month before his death.

After Baba’s death, Amir travels to Pakistan upon the request of Baba’s former business partner Rahim Khan. From Rahim Khan, Amir learns that many years ago Baba had an affair with Ali’s wife, Hassan’s mother. Amir is shaken to learn that Hassan, whom he betrayed, was thus his half brother. Amir’s grief is compounded when he discovers that Hassan and his wife were killed at the hands of the Taliban , leaving behind a son, Sohrab, in an orphanage in Afghanistan.

Amir returns to Afghanistan to find and rescue Sohrab, a journey that leads to his facing a childhood bully, now a Taliban official. The novel reaches a poignant climax as Amir, having rescued Sohrab and brought him back to Pakistan, assumes the responsibility of adopting Sohrab. This act of adoption is more than merely a display of compassion; it signifies Amir’s journey toward redemption and healing. Sohrab, having suffered extreme abuse and living in a declining societal structure, symbolizes hope and a chance for Amir to redress past wrongs. The relationship between Amir and Sohrab is marked by challenges, reflecting the complexities of human connections and the lasting impact of past traumas. Yet it is through this relationship that Amir finds a renewed sense of purpose and identity.

The Kite Runner transcends its narrative setting in Afghanistan to explore universal human themes such as guilt, redemption, and the indelible impact of childhood experiences. Hosseini intertwines personal and political realities, showcasing how individual lives are shaped by broader historical and cultural forces.

Through the characters’ journeys, Hosseini conveys the importance of confronting one’s past, seeking forgiveness, and the challenging road to redemption. These themes remind readers of the ongoing struggles many face in reconciling with their personal histories and the societal contexts they are born into. The Kite Runner also sheds light on the harsh realities of life in war-torn regions, fostering empathy and understanding among global audiences. It serves as a moving reminder of the devastating impact of conflict on individuals and communities , making it particularly pertinent in an era marked by numerous global conflicts, humanitarian crises, and the return of the Taliban to power in Afghanistan in 2021.

The Kite Runner

By khaled hosseini.

• The Kite Runner Summary

The story is narrated from the year 2002. Amir , who is thus far a nameless protagonist, tells us that an event in the winter of 1975 changed his life forever. We do not know anything about this event except that it still haunts him and that it involves something he did to Hassan , whom he calls "the harelipped kite runner." Amir takes us back to his childhood, in the final decades of the monarchy in Afghanistan. His father, Baba , was one of the wealthiest and most charitable Pashtun men in Kabul, where they lived in the Wazir Akbar Khan neighborhood. His mother died in childbirth. Amir's closest friend, the harelipped Hassan, was also his servant and a Hazara. He was very close to his father, Ali , who was Baba's servant.

Despite their differences, Amir and Hassan were inseparable. Hassan would have done anything for Amir; his first word was even "Amir." Baba was aloof and did not pay Amir much attention. He was a huge and imposing man who was rumored to have wrestled a bear. Baba did not subscribe to popular belief, preferring to cast his own opinions about issues. Baba wished Amir was athletic and brave like him instead of cowardly and bookish.

Amir explains how Ali and Baba knew each other. Baba's father took Ali into his house after Ali's parents were killed in an accident. Ali and Baba grew up together just like Hassan and Amir. In each generation, the boys could never truly consider themselves friends because of their class differences. One big difference divider was literacy. Amir was proud of his literacy and lorded it over the unsuspecting, illiterate Hassan. Yet when Amir wrote his first short story and read it to Hassan, it was the latter who found the plot hole in the story.

That same night, July 17, 1973, there was a coup d'etat in Afghanistan, changing it from a monarchy to a republic. Unbeknownst to the boys or anyone else, it was the first of many political changes that would eventually ruin Afghanistan as they knew it. One day, Amir and Hassan got into a confrontation with a boy named Assef and his two friends. Assef idolized Hitler and hated Hazaras. As usual, Hassan stood up for Amir; he got Assef to leave by aiming his slingshot at Assef's eye. That same year, Baba got Hassan surgery to fix his harelip.

In the winter, schools were closed in Kabul and the boys spent much time kite fighting. When defeated kites fell out of the sky, boys chased them to try to bring them home as trophies. They were called "kite runners." Amir usually flew a kite while Hassan ran kites for him. Hassan was the best kite runner anyone had ever seen. He had an innate sense of where a kite would land.

In the winter of 1975, there was a massive kite tournament. Amazingly, Amir won, and Hassan went to run the last kite for him. Before he chased it, he shouted, "For you, a thousand times over." When Hassan did not come home, Amir went out looking for him. He found Hassan confronting Assef and his two friends in an alley. Amir did nothing to help Hassan as Assef raped him. Later he found Hassan walking home, kite in hand, with blood dripping from his pants. He pretended not to know what happened and did not tell Ali the truth when he asked.

After the kite tournament, Amir's relationship with his father improved because Baba was so proud of him. His relationship with Hassan degraded. Amir was too ashamed of what he had done to face Hassan and avoided him at all costs. One day he even suggested to Baba that they get new servants. To his surprise, Baba was furious and threatened to hit Amir for the first time. He said that Ali and Hassan were their family. Amir tried to resolve his guilt by teaching Hassan not to be so loyal to him. He took Hassan up to the hill and pelted him with pomegranates. No matter how much he begged, Hassan would not hit him back. Hassan smashed a pomegranate into his own forehead and asked Amir if he felt better.

Amir's guilt intensified at the lavish thirteenth birthday party that Baba threw for him. He knew Baba never would have given him such a great party had he not won the tournament, which was inseparable in his mind from Hassan's rape. Assef came to the party and gave Amir a book about Hitler. Amir was disgusted to see him teasing Hassan during the party. Baba gave Amir a wristwatch. Rahim Khan gave him the only present he could bear to use, which was a blank notebook for his stories. He also received a good deal of money. To his chagrin, Ali and Hassan gave him a copy of his and Hassan's favorite book. After the party, Amir decided to betray Hassan a second time and frame him as a thief. He hid his wristwatch and money under Hassan and Ali's mattress. The next morning, he accused Hassan, who took the blame as usual. Baba forgave him immediately, but Hassan and Ali were too humiliated to stay. As they left, Amir saw Baba weep for the first time. They never saw Ali or Hassan again.

Five years later, during the Soviet occupation, Amir and Baba fled Afghanistan in a truck full of refugees. When they reached a checkpoint, a Russian soldier demanded to sleep with one of them, a married woman. Baba stood up for her even though the soldier was armed. They were allowed to pass. After hiding in a basement in Jalalabad, they departed for Peshawar, Pakistan in the filthy tank of a fuel truck. Among the refugees were Amir's schoolmate, Kamal, and his father. When they arrived, they discovered that Kamal was dead. Kamal's father put a gun in his mouth and shot himself. Luckily, Amir and Baba managed to emigrate to the San Francisco area.

Baba and Amir's life in Fremont, California was very different from their life in Wazir Akbar Khan. Baba worked long hours at a gas station and even though he loved "the idea of America," had trouble adjusting to its everyday realities. For Amir, America represented a fresh beginning, free of all his haunting memories of Hassan. He graduated high school at the age of twenty and planned to enroll in junior college. His graduation gave Baba a reason to celebrate, but he said he wished Hassan were with them. Eventually, Baba and Amir started selling used goods at a local flea market. They found it to be a miniature Afghan haven, filled with people they knew from Kabul.

At the flea market, Amir fell in love with a young woman named Soraya Taheri. Around the same time, Baba got sick. A doctor diagnosed Baba with terminal cancer and Baba refused palliative treatments. Then one day Baba collapsed with seizures in the flea market; the cancer had spread to his brain and he did not have long to live. Very soon after, Amir asked Baba to go khastegari, to ask for Soraya's hand in marriage. The Taheris accepted happily. Over the phone, Soraya told Amir her shameful secret. She had once run away with an Afghan man. When General Taheri finally forced her to come home, she had to cut off all her hair in shame. Amir told Soraya he still wanted to marry her. He felt ashamed that he could not bring himself to tell her his secret in return.

After khastegari came lafz, "the ceremony of giving word." Because Baba was so ill, Soraya and Amir decided to forgo the Shirini-kori, the traditional engagement party, as well as the engagement period. Baba spent almost all his money on the awroussi, the wedding ceremony. Soraya moved in with Amir and Baba so they could spend his last days together. She took care of him until the night he died peacefully in his sleep.

Many people attended Baba's funeral, each with a story of how Baba had helped them in Afghanistan. Suddenly, Amir realized that he had formed his identity around being "Baba's son." Amir and Soraya moved into their own apartment and worked towards their college degrees. In 1988, Amir published his first novel. Around the same time, the Soviets withdrew from Afghanistan, but new conflicts erupted. Soon after, the Cold War ended, the Berlin Wall fell, and the riots occurred in Tiananmen Square. In San Francisco, Amir and Soraya bought a house and discovered they were infertile. There was no medical explanation for the infertility, so Amir privately blamed it on his own shameful past.

One day, Amir received a call from Rahim Khan. He was seriously ill and was living in Peshawar. He told Amir, "There is a way to be good again." Amir flew to Peshawar to see Rahim Khan, who told him that he was dying. He explained that the Taliban had destroyed Afghanistan as they knew it and the people there were in grave danger. For a chapter, Rahim Khan becomes the narrator and tells Amir about what happened to Hassan. For a long time, Rahim Khan had lived in Baba's house alone, but he became weak and lonely. In 1986 he went looking for Hassan and found him living in a small village with his pregnant wife, Farzana. Hassan did not want to come to Wazir Akbar Khan until Rahim Khan told him about Baba's death. Hassan cried all night and in the morning, he and Farzana moved in with Rahim Khan.

Hassan and Farzana insisted on staying in the servants' hut and doing housework. Farzana's first baby was stillborn. One day, Sanaubar collapsed at the gate of the house. She had traveled a long way to finally make peace with Hassan, who accepted her with open arms. Sanaubar delivered Hassan and Farzana's son, Sohrab and played a large part in raising him. She died when he was four. Hassan made sure that Sohrab was loved, literate, and great with a slingshot. When the Taliban took over in 1996, people celebrated, but Hassan predicted that things would get worse, as they did. In 198, the Taliban massacred the Hazaras in Mazar-i-Sharif.

Rahim Khan gave Amir a letter that Hassan had written six months earlier along with a snapshot of him and Sohrab. In the letter, Hassan described the terror of living under the Taliban. He said he hoped Amir would return to Afghanistan and that they would reunite. Then Rahim Khan devastated Amir with the news that Hassan was dead. After Rahim Khan left to seek medical treatment in Pakistan, the Taliban showed up at Baba's house. They demanded that Hassan relinquish the house to them. When he refused, they took him to the street, made him kneel, and shot him in the back of the head. They shot Farzana too when she ran out of the house in a rage.

Rahim Khan asked Amir to go to Kabul and bring Sohrab back to Peshawar. He said that a nice American couple, the Caldwells, had a goodwill organization and would take care of him there. When Amir refused, Rahim Khan told him a life-changing secret: he and Hassan were half-brothers. Baba had shamed Ali by sleeping with Sanaubar, and because Ali was infertile, Hassan had to be Baba's son. Amir flew into a rage and ran out of Rahim Khan's apartment. After thinking things over at a café, he returned and said he would bring Sohrab to Peshawar.

A driver named Farid drove Amir from Peshawar. He looked down on Amir for leaving Afghanistan because he had stayed to fight the Soviets and suffered along with his country. He even told Amir that he had never been a real Afghan because he grew up with so many privileges. Amir did feel like a foreigner because he had to wear a fake beard and was dressed in traditional Afghan clothing for the first time. He barely recognized the landscape around him because it was so ravaged by war. They spent the night with Farid's brother, Wahid . Wahid's boys were malnourished and later that night, Amir heard one of his two wives complaining that he had given all the food to their guests. The next morning, Amir hid money under Wahid's mattress before they left.

The devastation in Kabul took Amir's breath away. Children and mothers begged on every street corner, and there were few men to be seen because so many had died fighting. Amir met an old beggar who was once a professor at the university alongside Amir's mother. Amir learns only a few random facts about his mother from the man, but this is still more than Baba ever told him. At the orphanage in Karteh-Seh, Farid and Amir discovered that a Talib official who was a pedophile had taken Sohrab a month before. Farid was so enranged at the man that he tried to strangle him to death, but Amir intervened. The man told them they could find the Talib at Ghazi Stadium. Farid drove Amir to Baba's house, which had become decrepit and was occupied by the Taliban. He and Farid spent the night in a run-down hotel.

Farid and Amir went to a soccer game at Ghazi Stadium. At halftime, the Talibs brought two accused adulterers out to the field and made them stand in pits in the ground. Then the Talib official came out and stoned them to death. Amir managed to make an appointment with this Talib for the same day. Farid drove him there, but Amir went in alone. The Talib had his men rip off Amir's fake beard. Then he called in Sohrab and made him dance for them. Sohrab looked terrified. Amir was horrified to discover that the Talib was Assef. Assef explained that he was on a mission to kill all the Hazaras in Afghanistan. Then he announced that he and Amir would fight to the death and none of his guards were to intervene. Sohrab was made to watch as Assef beat Amir nearly to death. As Assef straddled Amir, preparing to punch him again, Sohrab aimed his slingshot at Assef's eye and begged him to stop. When he did not, Sohrab put out his eye. Farid drove them away and Amir passed out.

Amir flitted in and out of consciousness in the Pakistani hospital where Farid took him. He dreamed about Baba fighting the bear, and realized that he was Baba. When he finally came to, he found out that he had almost died of a ruptured spleen. He had broken his ribs and a bone in his face and he had a punctured lung, among other injuries. Most poignantly, Amir's lip had split open to make him resemble Hassan. Sohrab visited Amir in the hospital but did not talk much. Farid brought a letter and a key from Rahim Khan. In the letter, Rahim urged Amir to forgive himself for what he did to Hassan. He had left Amir money in a safety deposit box, which the key would open.

Amir had to leave the hospital early in order to avoid being found and killed by Taliban sympathizers. He and Sohrab stayed at a hotel in Islamabad. The first night, Amir woke up to find Sohrab gone. After hours of searching he found him staring up at the city's big Shah Faisal mosque. Sohrab revealed that he was afraid God would punish him for what he did to Assef. He felt dirty and sinful from being abused. Amir tried to reassure him and promised to take him to America. He also promised Sohrab that he would never have to go to another orphanage. That night, Amir spoke to Soraya. After all their years of marriage, he finally told her what he did to Hassan. Then he told her he was bringing Sohrab home. Soraya was very supportive and promised to call her cousin Sharif, who worked for the INS.

At the American Embassy, an official named Raymond Andrews told Amir that it would be near impossible to get Sohrab a visa. To Amir's disgust, he told him to give up. Then a kind lawyer named Omar Faisal told Amir that he might have a chance of adopting Sohrab if he put him in an orphanage temporarily. When Amir told Sohrab about the orphanage, the boy was devastated. Amir rocked him to sleep and fell asleep as well. Soraya's call woke Amir. She explained that Sharif would be able to get Sohrab a visa. Realizing Sohrab was in the bath, Amir went in to tell him the good news. He found him dying in the bathtub, having slit his wrists.

In the hospital waiting for news about Sohrab, Amir prayed for the first time in fifteen years. He begged God to let Sohrab live because he did not want his blood on his hands. Eventually, he received the good news that Sohrab was alive.

The story jumps to the present year, 2002. Sohrab and Amir were able to come back to America safely. It had now been a year since they arrived and Sohrab had not spoken once. He barely seemed to have a will to live. Amir kept Sohrab's past secret from the Taheris until General Taheri called him a "Hazara boy." Amir was furious; he told the general never to refer to Amir that way again. Then he explained that Sohrab was his illegitimate half-nephew. General Taheri stopped asking questions after that. After September 11, General Taheri was called back to Afghanistan. In the wake of what happened, Amir found it strange to hear people on the news and on the street talking about the cities of his childhood. It saddened him to know that his country was still beind devastated after so many decades of violence. Then one day, a miracle happened.

At a rainy Afghan picnic, Amir noticed kites flying in the sky. He bought one and went over to Sohrab, who had secluded himself as usual. He told Sohrab that Hassan was the best kite runner he had ever known and asked Sohrab if he wanted to fly the kite. Sohrab was shy, but he followed Amir as he launched the kite into the air. Soon after, they noticed a green kite closing in on theirs. Amir used Hassan's favorite "lift-and-dive" move to cut the kite. Amir noticed the smallest hint of a smile on Sohrab's face. He offered to run the kite for Sohrab and as he ran off, he shouted, "For you, a thousand times over."

The Kite Runner Questions and Answers

The Question and Answer section for The Kite Runner is a great resource to ask questions, find answers, and discuss the novel.

Kite Runner Khaled Hosseini chapter 2&3

I'm not sure what your question is here.

Baba gets lung cancer. What has Baba been trying to teach Amir?

He wants to teach Amir how to be on his own.

What must grooms do before they ask a girl to wed?

Grooms must ask the father's (of the bride) permission first.

Study Guide for The Kite Runner

The Kite Runner is a novel by Khaled Hosseini. The Kite Runner study guide contains a biography of Khaled Hosseini, 100 quiz questions, a list of major themes, characters, and a full summary and analysis.

• About The Kite Runner
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Essays for The Kite Runner

The Kite Runner essays are academic essays for citation. These papers were written primarily by students and provide critical analysis of The Kite Runner by Khaled Hosseini.

• Amir’s Quest for Salvation in The Kite Runner
• A Journey for Redemption in The Kite Runner
• Redemption in Kahled Hosseini's The Kite Runner
• Assef: Why Is He the Way He Is?
• Emotional Intertextuality Between Death of a Salesman and The Kite Runner

Lesson Plan for The Kite Runner

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Word of Mouth

Submitting a book for review, write the editor, you are here:, the kite runner.

THE KITE RUNNER, Khaled Hosseini’s debut novel, focuses on the relationship between two Afghan boys --- Amir, the novel’s narrator and the son of a prosperous Kabul businessman, and Hassan, the son of Ali, a servant in the household of Amir’s father. Amir is a Pashtun and Sunni Muslim, while Hassan is a Hazara and a Shi’a. Despite their ethnic and religious differences, Amir and Hassan grow to be friends, although Amir is troubled by Hassan’s subservience, and his relationship with his companion, one year his junior, is ambivalent and complex.

The other source of tension in Amir’s life is his relationship with Baba, his hard-driving and demanding father. Desperate to win his father’s affection and respect, Amir turns to the sport of kite flying, and at the age of 12, with the assistance of Hassan, he wins the annual tournament in Kabul. But Amir’s victory soon is tarnished when he witnesses a vicious assault against his friend, who has raced through the streets of Kabul to retrieve the last kite Amir had sliced from the sky, and fails to come to his aid. Amir’s cowardice is compounded by a later act of betrayal that causes Ali and Hassan to leave their home, and he now faces the nightmare prospect of bearing the burden of his ill-fated choices for the rest of his life.

"Khaled Hosseini’s novel offers a potent combination of a setting in an exotic land that has taken on increasing importance to Americans in the last several years with a compelling human drama."

In 1981, following the Russian invasion of Afghanistan, Amir and Baba flee the country for California, where Amir attends college, marries and becomes a successful novelist. Amir’s world is shaken in 2001 when he receives a call from his father’s best friend, informing him that “There is a way to be good again.” That call launches him on a harrowing journey to rescue Hassan’s son Sohrab, orphaned by the brutal Taliban, and at the same time redeem himself from the torment of his youthful mistakes.

Hosseini, a native of Afghanistan who left the country at the age of 11 and settled in the United States in 1980, does a marvelous job of introducing readers to the people and culture of his homeland. He makes no attempt to romanticize the often harsh reality of life there throughout the last 30 years, though he’s adept at capturing mundane and yet expressive details --- the beauty of a winter morning in Kabul, the sights and smells of the marketplace and the thrill of the kite flying tournament --- that demonstrate his deep affection for his native land.

In the end, what gives THE KITE RUNNER the power that has endeared the novel to millions of readers is the way that it wrestles with themes that have resonated in classical literature since the time of Greek drama --- friendship, betrayal, the relationship between fathers and sons, the quest for redemption and the power of forgiveness. For a first-time novelist, Hosseini demonstrates striking skill at melding a page-turning story with intensely involving characters and conflicts. Those features of this absorbing novel give it a timelessness that transcends the specifics of the tale.

The fact that THE KITE RUNNER has spent more than 120 weeks on the New York Times paperback bestseller list and has sold more than four million copies in the United States is hardly an accident. Khaled Hosseini’s novel offers a potent combination of a setting in an exotic land that has taken on increasing importance to Americans in the last several years with a compelling human drama. If he can continue, as he has again in A THOUSAND SPLENDID SUNS, to join those elements in his future work, his readers are likely to remain loyal for many works to come.

Reviewed by Harvey Freedenberg on April 26, 2004

The Kite Runner by Khaled Hosseini

• Publication Date: April 27, 2004
• Genres: Fiction
• Paperback: 400 pages
• Publisher: Riverhead Trade
• ISBN-10: 1594480001
• ISBN-13: 9781594480003

The Kite Runner

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The Kite Runner by Khaled Hosseini

A Journey of Betrayal, Redemption, and Lost Innocence

• Publisher: Riverhead Books
• Genre: Contemporary Fiction, Drama
• First Publication: 2003
• Language:  English

Major Characters: Amir, Hassan, Assef, Bába, Sohrab, Soraya, Rahim Khan

Setting Place: Kabul (Afghanistan), Fremont, California (United States), Peshawar (Pakistan)

Theme: Memory and Past, Politics and Society, Betrayal, Redemption, Violence

Narrator: First person limited, from Amir’s point of view

Book Summary: The Kite Runner by Khaled Hosseini

The unforgettable, heartbreaking story of the unlikely friendship between a wealthy boy and the son of his father’s servant, The Kite Runner is a beautifully crafted novel set in a country that is in the process of being destroyed. It is about the power of reading, the price of betrayal, and the possibility of redemption; and an exploration of the power of fathers over sons—their love, their sacrifices, their lies.

A sweeping story of family, love, and friendship told against the devastating backdrop of the history of Afghanistan over the last thirty years, The Kite Runner is an unusual and powerful novel that has become a beloved, one-of-a-kind classic.

The Kite Runner by Khaled Hosseini starts off really great, it does not deteriorate into crap but I want to stress that it starts off really great.

I have never been to Afghanistan before (I imagine very few of us have) but this book paints such a vivid mental image of life in Kabul during the early 70s (before the Soviet deployment of their Army there) that I feel as if I have some kind of first-hand experience. I am not saying it is an accurate picture of the real Kabul at the time, just that the image and the imaginary atmosphere seems very real. Wild horses couldn’t drag me there now, but I imagine back then it was a nice place and time to grow up in (depending on your station in life there I guess).

“For you, a thousand times over”

Amir is the son of a wealthy, influential Afghan father, and he grows up alongside the son of their servant with whom he becomes best friends. The servants who serve their employers for many years tend to live in or near their employer’s home and tend to have kids of their own who grow up along with the boss’s children. The servants’ children often becoming their playmates if not exactly friends; a close friendship would require a more equal status in life. Amir lives in a mansion while Hassan and his crippled father live in a mud hut on the grounds. Hassan is Amir’s servant—has the fire going, has his breakfast ready before school with his school clothes laid out and his shoes polished. Amir is a bookish boy while Hassan is an unschooled Hazara.

“It may be unfair, but what happens in a few days, sometimes even a single day, can change the course of a whole lifetime…”

The Hazara are the underclass, and their status is akin to many other societies where wealthy families and servants or slaves share household activities. We follow Amir, Hassan and their families from their traditional childhood in Kabul in the 1970s through to the “liberation” of Afghanistan by the Taliban and then the barbaric behaviour of the Taliban as they take over and set about ethnic cleansing—wiping out the Hazara (leaving them for the dogs to eat!) and terrifying and killing for the fun of it.

As times change in Kabul, the boys change, life changes, and we are taken to the Afghan community in San Francisco, where they keep their customs and traditions in spite of American ignorance about where they’ve come from.

“And that’s the thing about people who mean everything they say. They think everyone else does too.”

Khaled Hosseini writes from a heart that remembers its homeland, and remembers it well. While most of us think of Afghanistan as war-torn and weary, obsessive and restrictive, frightening even; Hosseini remembers what it was before all of that came to be. He gives the Afghani people a face, which can be a very powerful thing indeed.

He does not give us a narrator who is likeable, admirable, or sometimes even excusable, but he does give us a narrator who is human, vulnerable, and who suffers for his shortcomings. For some trespasses there is no atonement, only forgiveness.

“it always hurts more to have and lose than to not have in the first place.”

No need for me to recount anything more about this book. Everyone has read it before me and the reviews are myriad. What I will say is that it is an important, heartfelt work of art and I believe it will be causing readers to replenish boxes of tissues far into the future.

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The Kite Runner by Khaled Hosseini

• Publication Date: April 27, 2004
• Genres: Fiction
• Paperback: 400 pages
• Publisher: Riverhead Trade
• ISBN-10: 1594480001
• ISBN-13: 9781594480003
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The Kite Runner could use more heart

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Khaled Hosseini’s 2003 novel, The Kite Runner , about the diverging paths of two boys in Kabul during the 1970s and after, is a moving and sorrowful story of how geopolitical, class, and religious strife victimizes the most powerless among us. It’s also a story rooted in something very familiar in young adult literature—the need to make amends for the sins of our youth. Childhood may be idealized as a time of innocence, but for many, it’s also when it’s far too easy to turn on the weaker among us as a way of protecting ourselves.

The Kite Runner Through 6/23: Tue 7 PM, Wed 1 and 7 PM, Fri 7 PM, Sat 2 and 7:30 PM, Sun 1 PM; CIBC Theatre, 18 W. Monroe, broadwayinchicago.com , $9-$115, 13+

Hosseini’s novel isn’t YA, of course, but it’s certainly no insult to see similarities with the YA canon. The stage version adapted by Matthew Spangler, now in a short run with Broadway in Chicago, could use more of the emotional complexities that made the book so memorable (I’ve not seen the 2007 film). Instead, it feels like we’re taking a trip through the carefully structured plot points, while the deeper heart of the story is just out of reach. It’s structured, like the novel, as a trip back through the memories of narrator Amir (Ramzi Khalaf), a native of Afghanistan living in San Francisco in 2003. He gets a call from Rahim (Jonathan Shaboo), an old friend of his now-dead father who tells him he has a chance to right a wrong from his past involving his childhood friend and servant, Hassan (Shahzeb Zahid Hussain). Hassan and his father are Hazaras, an ethnic group in Afghanistan often looked down upon by Pashtuns like Amir and his Baba (Haythem Noor). There are reasons for Baba’s kindness to Hassan that are revealed later in the story, but Amir is sheltered from those secrets, just as he is from most things around him. Until, of course, the combined threat of the Soviets and the Taliban drive him and his father from their wealthy life in Kabul to a hardscrabble existence in the Bay Area.

There are some brilliant visual interludes here involving kite imagery and the juxtaposition of Kabul streetscapes with San Francisco. (Credit to the combined efforts of scenic designer Barney George, lighting designer Charles Balfour, and projection designer William Simpson). The percussion accompaniment (especially as performed by tabla artist Salar Nader; Jonathan Girling is credited as composer and music supervisor) creates an often hypnotic soundscape, aided by the sound design of Drew Baumohl, that moves us from dream to nightmare.   There is a strong suggestion in Hosseini’s book that is also captured well here by Wiley Naman Strasser’s Assef: namely, that bullies will use any political or religious excuse to justify their sociopathic cruelty. But throughout Giles Croft’s staging, I felt that I was being told a story from a narrative distance, rather than invited into one. The story of Afghanistan’s history over the last 50 years is, of course, particularly complex. But I think The Kite Runner as a piece of theater would work better if it concentrated on the two lost boys at the heart of the story.

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Theater | Review: ‘The Kite Runner’ at CIBC Theatre has a…

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Theater | review: ‘the kite runner’ at cibc theatre has a compelling story that struggles to fly on stage.

That legacy, at once local to Evanston and international of import, came into my head Wednesday night as I watched the touring production of “The Kite Runner,” a show I’d previously reviewed on Broadway in 2022. It’s a (non-musical) adaptation of the justly celebrated debut novel by the Afghan American writer Khaled Hosseini, a harrowing story of displacement and betrayal set in Kabul, Afghanistan, Pakistan and San Francisco. Hosseini had a lot to say about the fate of Afghanistan at the hands of the Soviets, the Americans and the Taliban, but the core of the book really is about how the Pashtun narrator, Amir, fails to prevent a sexual assault happening to his loyal and vulnerable Hazara friend Hassan, and how the narrator’s compounding guilt then comes to define much of the rest of his life.

“The Kite Runner” is a powerful work, widely assigned in schools and famous following the 2007 film of the same name, but I find Matthew Spangler’s adaptation disappointing mostly because huge chunks of the storytelling are confined to the narrative voice, and because so little of the potential visual sweep of a story that draws on the ecstatic experience of flying a kite made it onto the stage. The touring show, which has a smaller physical production than was the case on Broadway, benefits greatly from an accomplished lead actor in Ramzi Khalaf, who carries the bulk of the storytelling, as well as two lovely performances from Shahzeb Zahid Hussain as Hassan and Haythem Noor as Baba, Amir’s demanding but loving father. Hussain especially is really something.

It’s true that Amir’s attempts to assuage his guilt, even though he was hardly the most to blame, are central to the work and this is both a father-son story and one of redemption. And, of course, Amir is the main authorial representative.  But the use of that single narrative voice squeezes out the character who suffers most, which is Hassan, and as you watch this adaptation you constantly think how Hassan has been rendered almost like a cypher for another’s guilt and Amir’s point of view actually is not the one that matters the most here.

There’s nothing inherent wrong with a flawed narrator, of course, but the dialog-phobic adaptation, and to some degree the staging by director Giles Croft, tends to foregound it at the expense of everyone else. The production also lacks sensorial ambition; when a great novel is turned into a Broadway show, we expect a rush of what the theater does best, a sense of place and milieu, beautiful stage pictures, a racing theatrical pulse, a sense of additive life to what once just sat on the page.

This journeyman, sometimes pedestrian, version of “The Kite Runner” doesn’t have that level of ambition, despite its Broadway pedigree.  Granted, it has its moments:  I liked the touring cast very much indeed and I think the show is a good idea for a young person studying the book, for it will set the mind and heart racing when it comes to what (for me) is its central themes: the morality, or lack thereof, of self-protection if personal survival so demands and how individuals can and should love even when surrounded by oppression.

But it could have been so much more if only it had let others reveal more of their hearts.

Chris Jones is a Tribune critic.

[email protected]

Review: “The Kite Runner” (2.5 stars)

When: Through June 23

Where: CIBC theatre, 18 W. Monroe St.

Running time: 2 hours, 35 minutes

Tickets: $31.50-$115.50 at www.broadwayinchicago.com

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'Challenges our authority': School board in Florida bans book about book bans

Indian river county school board members said they disliked how it referenced other books that already had been removed from schools and accused it of "teaching rebellion of school board authority.".

INDIAN RIVER COUNTY — School officials here have banned a book about book banning.

The School Board last month voted to remove " Ban This Book " by Alan Gratz from its shelves, overruling its own district book-review committee's decision to keep it.

The children's novel follows a fictional fourth grader who creates a secret banned books locker library after her school board pulled a multitude of titles off the shelves.

School Board members said they disliked how it referenced other books that had been removed from schools and accused it of "teaching rebellion of school board authority," as described in the formal motion to oust it.

The book, which had been in two Indian River County elementary schools and a middle school, was challenged by Jennifer Pippin, president of the local chapter of Moms for Liberty , a national conservative group that has become one of the loudest advocates for removing books they deem inappropriate.

The book has also been challenged at least one other time in Florida, in Clay County , but school officials there decided to keep it in circulation.

Gratz, its author, called the Indian River County decision "incredibly ironic."

"They banned the book because it talks about the books that they have banned and because it talks about book banning," he said in an interview with the USA TODAY NETWORK-Florida. "It feels like they know exactly what they're doing and they're somewhat ashamed of what they're doing and they don't want a book on the shelves that calls them out."

The school board's decision

The school board voted 3-2 to remove the book, but that decision could have gone in the opposite direction just months before.

Board members Jacqueline Rosario and Gene Posca, who voted in the majority, were backed by Moms for Liberty during their campaigns. The third "yes" vote came from Kevin McDonald, who was recently appointed by Gov. Ron DeSantis.

Moms for Liberty leaders have vocally supported DeSantis — and vice versa . Still, the appointment came with more drama than usual.

It all started when School Board member Brian Barefoot resigned , saying he was moving out of the district he was elected to represent. He tried to  rescind that resignation  the next day, after being told by a TCPalm reporter that his new home was actually in the same district.

He didn't succeed.

Barefoot had been on DeSantis hit list of school board members statewide the governor wanted to target in the 2024 election, saying they don't protect parental rights or shield students from "woke" ideologies. McDonald already had been running for Barefoot's seat.

"We are elected — I was appointed, vote of one — we are here to represent the parent's decisions, and the school board is the final authority for our citizens," McDonald said at last month's meeting, explaining some of his disagreement with the book.

"The title itself and the theme challenges our authority. And it even goes so far as to not only to mention books that are deemed inappropriate by school boards, including ours, it not only mentions them but it lists them."

Florida Freedom to Read, one of the state's loudest book access advocates, called the removal "truly absurd" in a social media post , adding, "This is what happens when you lose a nonpartisan majority."

Not everyone agrees

At the same time, BookLooks.org , a book-rating website that is tied to Moms for Liberty and is commonly cited by those challenging books in schools, only gives "Ban This Book" a mild "1" rating out of 5 for inappropriateness.

"This book encourages activism of young children," the rating said in its "summary of concerns." Regardless, Pippin's book challenge accused the book of containing sexual conduct.

School Board members opposed to the removal had a different opinion.

"It does not depict or describe sexual conduct, period. Maybe it refers to other books that do but it does not do that itself," said Teri Barenborg, the School Board chair. "It's a cute little book about a little girl that's trying to defy establishment. Does she go about it in the right way? No. Does she learn her lesson? Yes."

The main character, student Amy Anne, broke several school rules in the process of circumventing the board's decisions, like taking pulled books from the librarian's office to use in her own secret library.

McDonald accused the author of justifying such behavior because it was levied against the school board she disagrees with: "That lesson alone is at the heart of corruption in our society," he said.

Gratz, the author, said the criticism took things out of context "deliberately just to get a book off the shelf."

"Clearly, that's not the message of the book," Gratz said. "But they were making 'good trouble,' as John Lewis would say , and these kids know the difference between good trouble and bad trouble."

McDonald was referring to a scene on the last page, where the main character is ironically reflecting on how the books were removed with fears they would "encourage kids to lie, steal, and be disrespectful to adults." Instead, she thought, it was the book banning that prompted such behavior, which she had been punished for.

It was the school board in the book that set off the "good trouble," Gratz said, breaking their own rules in removing books outside of the usual review process.

While Indian River County School Board members are given the final say in library content decisions, he compared that plot point to how they decided to pull his book despite it going through a review process when it was purchased and after it was challenged. Reviewers included both parents and school officials.

That also irked Barenborg.

"We've had several eyes on this book before it came to us," she said. "Yet we're going to be the five people that determine that we know all those people who determined the book was OK before it got to us. I have a hard time with that."

Another criticism about "Ban This Book," from School Board member Posca: "This book is really just a liberal Marxist propaganda piece."

"I am liberal, guilty as charged," Gratz rebutted, laughing. "I'm not a Marxist by any stretch. I think this is just the case of someone using hot-button political words to try and score points with supporters."

Ultimately, it was book character Amy Anne finding the confidence to speak up at the public comment portion of a School Board meeting that led members to reinstating the books.

"It doesn't teach rebellion against the school board; it teaches civic engagement," Gratz said. "If that means opposing what your school board is doing, that means opposing what your school board is doing."

'Ban This Book' not the first banned book

"Ban This Book" is not the first book that's been removed from public schools in Indian River County.

More than 140 books have been removed from school shelves following an objection, according to a list obtained through a public-records request. Moms for Liberty's Pippin had filed all those objections.

Florida controversially twice picked Pippin, a public school student parent herself, to partake in a group to develop a state-sponsored training program on book removals for school librarians and media specialists.

Removed books that she challenged include classics like "The Bluest Eye" by Toni Morrison, "Slaughterhouse-Five" by Kurt Vonnegut and "The Kite Runner" by Khaled Hosseini.

She also got  “Anne Frank’s Diary: The Graphic Adaptation” pulled from a high school. And, in response to her objection to a children's book that showed the bare behind of a goblin, the school district drew clothes over it.

Indian River County is not the only place in Florida that has seen a surge in removals. Multiple measures signed by DeSantis have prompted local school leaders across the state to pull books in wildly varying ways,  fearing running afoul  of state law. It's also prompted multiple lawsuits .

Meanwhile, DeSantis and other conservatives have raged against the "book ban" term . DeSantis says removals are being exaggerated, slamming "mainstream media, unions and leftist activists’ hoax of empty library bookshelves and political theater...."

At the same time, he's bashed the explicit content found in certain school library books and pushed a law geared at limiting how many books someone can challenge if they're not a student's parent or guardian. 

But Gratz said the "heart of the problem" is that those trying to remove books aren't trying to protect children.

"They don't want these books to exist," he said. Especially, he added, books by and about communities of color and the LGBTQ community. "Now they don't want my book on the shelf because it would tell kids that these books exist: The books they can't even get in the library."

This reporting content is supported by a partnership with Freedom Forum and Journalism Funding Partners. USA TODAY Network-Florida First Amendment reporter Douglas Soule can be reached at  [email protected] .