The Kite Runner by Khaled Hosseini

Genre: Fiction
Length: 371 pages

Reviewed by: Laurelyn Aubrey

“I became what I am today at the age of twelve, on a frigid overcast day in the winter of 1975. I remember the precise moment, crouching behind a crumbling mud wall, peeking into the alley near the frozen creek. That was a long time ago, but it’s wrong what they say about the past, I’ve learned, about how you can bury it. Because the past claws its way out. Looking back now, I realize I have been peeking into that deserted alley for the last twenty-six years.”

Those are the opening words of The Kite Runner, Khaled Hosseini’s international hit that spent over two years on the New York Times’ bestseller list. The story follows the lives of two young boys growing up in Afghanistan - Amir, the son of a wealthy and prominent Afghan, and Hassan, one of the family’s servants. From birth, the two boys were inseparable: they were nursed by the same woman, they learned to walk and talk under the same roof, they played pranks, flew kites, and imagined stories together. Then, on what should have been the gladdest day of their life, something happens that ends both life and friendship as they’ve known it. In the turbulent times that follow, the guilt-racked Amir moves to America with his father and tries to forget his old life…but his unresolved past eventually moves him to return to war-torn Afghanistan seeking somehow to find “a way to be good again”. (pg. 192)

Though this book is a novel in first person, once you’ve delved into the story it’s easy to forget and think you’re reading the author’s memoir. The culture and color of the markets of Kabul…the characters’ frequently difficult relationships and emotions…the terror and devastation wreaked by the Taliban…each scene deepens the impression that you’re seeing it through the eyes of the one who stood there himself. Hosseini’s writing is genuine, gripping, and gut-wrenchingly real.

This book deals with many sad themes. It’s a haunting glimpse of Muslim culture in Afghanistan, and more broadly, of the misery, guilt, hatred, shame, and hopelessness in human life. Though there are many touching moments of friendship and love, the whole of the story left me aching for the protagonist as he sought to find the atonement and the God of mercy that don’t exist in Islam. Though he never really resolves these issues, the author strikes a root of truth when he doesn’t leave us with a Hollywood-style “happily ever after”, but instead a bittersweet reminder that while there is life, there is yet hope.

I am glad to have read this novel. Besides being a moving portrayal of life in modern Afghanistan, it was a realistic look at the human condition, and the way we vainly try to deal with our sins. It left me saddened, contemplative, a bit depressed, and so very thankful to the Lord for the hope we have in Christ.

Caution: Some language, violence, and sexual situations make this book for adults or mature teens only.