Even after Amir and his father flee to America, Amir remains haunted by his cowardly actions and disloyalty. They spend idyllic days running kites and telling stories of mystical places and powerful warriors until an unspeakable event changes the nature of their relationship forever, and eventually cements their bond in ways neither boy could have ever predicted. As children in the relatively stable Afghanistan of the early 1970s, the boys are inseparable. The Kite Runner follows the story of Amir, the privileged son of a wealthy businessman in Kabul, and Hassan, the son of Amir's father's servant. ![]() He manages to provide an educational and eye-opening account of a country's political turmoil-in this case, Afghanistan-while also developing characters whose heartbreaking struggles and emotional triumphs resonate with readers long after the last page has been turned over. In his debut novel, The Kite Runner, Khaled Hosseini accomplishes what very few contemporary novelists are able to do. "synopsis" may belong to another edition of this title. Only years later will Amir have an opportunity to redeem himself by returning to Afghanistan to begin to repay the debt long owed to the man who should have been his brother.Ĭompelling, heartrending, and etched with details of a history never before told in fiction, The Kite Runner is a story of the ways in which we’re damned by our moral failures, and of the extravagant cost of redemption. When the Soviets invade Afghanistan, Amir and his father flee to San Francisco, leaving Hassan and his father to a pitiless fate. Plunged into self-loathing, Amir conspires to have Hassan and his father turned out of the household. An unspeakable assault on Hassan by a gang of local boys tears the friends apart Amir has witnessed his friend’s torment, but is too afraid to intercede. This fragile idyll is broken by the mounting ethnic, religious, and political tensions that begin to tear Afghanistan apart. Amir belongs to the ruling caste of Pashtuns, Hassan to the despised Hazaras. Amir’s father is a wealthy merchant Hassan’s father is his manservant. Both motherless, they grow up as close as brothers, but their fates, they know, are to be different. Now in paperback, one of the year’s international literary sensations - a shattering story of betrayal and redemption set in war-torn Afghanistan.Īmir and Hassan are childhood friends in the alleys and orchards of Kabul in the sunny days before the invasion of the Soviet army and Afghanistan’s decent into fanaticism. I thought about something Rahim Khan said just before he hung up, almost as an afterthought, ‘There is a way to be good again.’” ![]() Despite its violent and corrupted past, Hosseini hopes for a redemption for his country someday.“I sat on a bench near a willow tree and watched a pair of kites soaring in the sky. Hosseini subtly connects these personal quests for redemption to Afghanistan itself. Amir is also able to find a kind of redemption in his bloody fight with Assef (Hassan’s rapist), and his adoption of Sohrab. This ultimately culminates in Amir’s return to Afghanistan and his attempts to save and adopt Hassan’s son Sohrab.Īfter Amir learns of Baba’s betrayal of Ali, Amir realizes that Baba was probably trying to redeem his adultery through his many charitable activities and strong principles in later life. After Hassan’s rape, Amir spends the rest of his life trying to redeem himself for his betrayal of his loyal friend. Throughout his childhood, Amir’s greatest struggle was to redeem himself to Baba for “killing” his mother during childbirth, and for growing up a disappointing son who was unlike Baba himself. The quest for redemption makes up much of the novel’s plot, and expands as a theme to include both the personal and the political.
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