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

RELEASE NOTES:

Flash Meet Up in Nijmege vandaag.

Wow, what a surprise to find this book at the meeting in OBCZ-Café Jos today! I have had this book on my wishlist for some time now. Thanks for bringing it Raffizack :-D

24-8-2008: I was very moved by reading 'Gesluierd door Afghanistan' a few weeks ago and someone metioned this book in their journalentry of that book. I have the book on my bookshelf so I decided to read this book now.

What a beautifully written book! It makes me want to read more books by this author.
A few weeks ago I read the dutch translation of 'The Silenced Cry: One Woman's Diary of a Journey to Afghanistan' (Gesluierd door Afghanistan) by Ana Tortajada which gave me some background knowledge about the history and culture of Afghanistan. It enabled me to put this story in perspective better.

WILD RELEASE NOTES:

I left this book in the cupboard at the OBCZ around 12.30 hrs.

This book has been sighted at OBCZ-Kaketoe.

2-2-2009: taken from the OBCZ to make room for other books
4-2-2009: reserved for eowyn-unquendor.

Thank you for taking the book with you for me! I look forward to this story; I hope it's not too sad...

I couldn't sleep last night, and I woke up wide awake at 4 in the morning. It was because I had been with my nose in Khaled Hosseini's novel "The Kite Runner". I've read 50 pages before I had to put down the book and had another short sleep. This morning I finished the book, and I almost hate to admit that Isabelle Allende's review that the book will make you feel that everything is blank, was true :)

In the beginning I wasn't that impressed with the book. It seemed just another tale of an immigrant who recalls his happy childhood before the war turned everything. But you know that bad things are going to happen, and the big break point already in the beginning of the book was a bit of a first shock.
I liked how the world of the protagonist became larger and larger. At first it was just his house, his school, his town. When he fled the world became bigger, and the problems of Afghanistan became much larger. That was when I started to grumble that this book must be one of those fashionable 'anti-Taliban tales which justify our presence in that country, written with political critic in mind. And I said to myself that I wouldn't bother to pick up Hosseini's next novel.
And at the end the I couldn't put the book down; I had to finish it. There were times that I almost couldn't take the violence and injustice, but I kept reading and reading. And yes, I was a bit teary-eyed at the end.
Good book. Not exactly a joy to read, but gripping. And what I call it a 'tale-telling' book.

CONTROLLED RELEASE NOTES:

Via Dutch Flybabe naar Gyralinavos. 'njoy!

Eowyn-unquendor, thanks for this beautiful book. I love to read it in English, because I loved it much in dutch.
Dutch-flybabe, also thanks for you for bringing me this nice book.