Title: Kite Runner Author: Khaled Hosseini type of book: Fiction call number: Fic

This book is strong in character, story, language and setting.

Summary:
Narrator Amir is the son of a well-to-do Kabul merchant. Even after he marries and becomes a successful novelist in America, he is haunted by a incident in which he betrayed the trust of his best childhood friend Hassan. When Amir learns that the Taliban have murdered Hassan and his wife, he feels obligated by guilt to discover the fate of their son. Amir makes a difficult journey to Kabul and pays a severe price to save the boy from a former childhood bully who has become a prominent Taliban official.

I would recommend this book!

Why?
Even with all the positive reviews, I could not imagine being so captivated by a story of a boyhood in Afghanistan . . . but I was wrong. If you read this book, chances are it will immediately move into the top five of your all-time best books, as it did for every person in my book club. I sat next to a 90-year old woman at a dinner, and when I asked what she has enjoyed reading . . . Kite Runner. My sister-in-law talking books on the golf course with some man? Kite Runner! Its appeal crosses gender and age of the reader. It also teaches you so much about an area of the world that few of us understand, but which figures so prominently in today's world news stories.

Employee Initials: SB Review Date: May 2006

Read other reviews by this staff member.