The Kite Runner
10 journalers for this copy...
Twelve-year-old Amir is desperate to gain the approval of his father and resolves to win the local kite-fighting tournament, to prove that he has the makings of a man. His loyal friend Hassan promises to help him - for he always helps Amir - but this is 1970s Afghanistan and Hassan is merely a low-caste servant who is jeered at in the street, although Amir feels jealous of his natural courage and the place he holds in his father's heart. But neither of the boys could forsee what would happen to Hassan on the afternoon of the tournament, which was to shatter their lives. After the Russians invade and the family is forced to flee to America, Amir realises that one day he must return, to find the one thing that his new world cannot grant him: redemption.
You'd never be able to tell, reading it, that this is a first novel. The words just roll off the page and into your mind, painting pictures of places and emotions you would never have imagined without the author's skillful use of language. It's a while since I've read a book that had me turning the pages and saying 'Just a little more, a little more ...' long after bedtime. I'm saddened to see that the author's next book isn't due out until later in the year as I want more!
Offered as BookRing.
Offered as BookRing.
The Back of the Book
knitnurse - UK - Intl
janette141* - UK - Intl
Eilan86 - Italy - Eur only must arrive from Europe
LindyLouMac - Italy - Intl if nec must arrive from Eur
Ladybug01 - US - Intl
Aramena - US - Intl
cobalt-tree - Canada - Intl
clairemagnolia - UK - Intl
LindyB28 - UK - Intl
MaureenHB - UK - UK
loribee - UK - Eur
AliceF - UK - Intl
DianeO - UK - Intl
candy-is-dandy - UK - Intl at end
laura0141 - UK - ENDS
*janette141 is laura0141's mother and not currently an active BXer so, if you have problems contacting her, please just let laura0141 know.
knitnurse - UK - Intl
janette141* - UK - Intl
Eilan86 - Italy - Eur only must arrive from Europe
LindyLouMac - Italy - Intl if nec must arrive from Eur
Ladybug01 - US - Intl
Aramena - US - Intl
cobalt-tree - Canada - Intl
clairemagnolia - UK - Intl
LindyB28 - UK - Intl
MaureenHB - UK - UK
loribee - UK - Eur
AliceF - UK - Intl
DianeO - UK - Intl
candy-is-dandy - UK - Intl at end
laura0141 - UK - ENDS
*janette141 is laura0141's mother and not currently an active BXer so, if you have problems contacting her, please just let laura0141 know.
PMed knitnurse for addy
On way to knitnurse
Rec'd today, many thanks. Parcel was opened when it got here (!) but I have a great postie so it was safe :D I'm really looking forward to this.
Well, that was harrowing. Characters with the best and worst of personalities and true horror in their lives. It's hard to mark this book as I think it was excellent but it was almost too much to bear for a softy like me who usually avoids knowing too much.
Posted to Janette141 4th September.
Posted to Janette141 4th September.
janette141 read this while in hospital and says she was most impressed with it. She also commented that she got more out of it due to the current situation in Afghanistan.
* * *
PMing Eilan86 for addy on behalf of janette141
* * *
PMing Eilan86 for addy on behalf of janette141
Eilan86 has asked to be skipped. PMing LindyLouMac for addy.
On way to lindyloumac
Arrived yesterday, thanks Laura0141. Books always seem to arrive like buses, nothing for ages then they all arrive at once. So, sorry it may take me a week or two to get to this as three rings(including current book)ahead of it. However I promise it will soon be travelling again, it has a long way to go!!
Update:20/11/06:Currently reading, as previously mentioned you would never guess that this is Hosseini's first novel! I have already contacted the next person on list for address, so as not to hold it up once I have finished.
Update:20/11/06:Currently reading, as previously mentioned you would never guess that this is Hosseini's first novel! I have already contacted the next person on list for address, so as not to hold it up once I have finished.
Amazon.co.uk Review:
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.
Narrated by Amir, a 40-year-old novelist living in California, The Kite Runner tells the gripping story of a boyhood friendship destroyed by jealousy, fear, and the kind of ruthless evil that transcends mere politics. Running parallel to this personal narrative of loss and redemption is the story of modern Afghanistan and of Amir's equally guilt-ridden relationship with the war-torn city of his birth. The first Afghan novel to be written in English, The Kite Runner begins in the final days of King Zahir Shah's 40-year reign and traces the country's fall from a secluded oasis to a tank-strewn battlefield controlled by the Russians and then the trigger-happy Taliban. When Amir returns to Kabul to rescue Hassan's orphaned child, the personal and the political get tangled together in a plot that is as suspenseful as it is taut with feeling
As no one else has yet copied the Amazon review into a journal entry, I have taken the liberty of doing so. This book should be compulsory to all novel readers, as it really brings to life 'happenings' in Afganistan and the realities of life there. I felt that this was a very realistic tale and could easily, apart from a few literary embellishments have been FACT rather than FICTION! a sign of a good novel when you are so drawn into the story that it feels real.
A brilliantly written and very powerful story that held my interest completely. I now have a little more understanding of the Afghan culture and the situation in Afghanistan, words such as The Khyber Pass, Kabul ,Jalalabad, Hazara and the Taliban now mean more to me than just places and people one hears about on the news!
Update 29/11/06 I have now heard from Ladybug01 with an address so will get the book posted.
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.
Narrated by Amir, a 40-year-old novelist living in California, The Kite Runner tells the gripping story of a boyhood friendship destroyed by jealousy, fear, and the kind of ruthless evil that transcends mere politics. Running parallel to this personal narrative of loss and redemption is the story of modern Afghanistan and of Amir's equally guilt-ridden relationship with the war-torn city of his birth. The first Afghan novel to be written in English, The Kite Runner begins in the final days of King Zahir Shah's 40-year reign and traces the country's fall from a secluded oasis to a tank-strewn battlefield controlled by the Russians and then the trigger-happy Taliban. When Amir returns to Kabul to rescue Hassan's orphaned child, the personal and the political get tangled together in a plot that is as suspenseful as it is taut with feeling
As no one else has yet copied the Amazon review into a journal entry, I have taken the liberty of doing so. This book should be compulsory to all novel readers, as it really brings to life 'happenings' in Afganistan and the realities of life there. I felt that this was a very realistic tale and could easily, apart from a few literary embellishments have been FACT rather than FICTION! a sign of a good novel when you are so drawn into the story that it feels real.
A brilliantly written and very powerful story that held my interest completely. I now have a little more understanding of the Afghan culture and the situation in Afghanistan, words such as The Khyber Pass, Kabul ,Jalalabad, Hazara and the Taliban now mean more to me than just places and people one hears about on the news!
Update 29/11/06 I have now heard from Ladybug01 with an address so will get the book posted.
Journal Entry 13 by LindyLouMac at by mail in To the next participant, A Bookring -- Controlled Releases on Wednesday, November 29, 2006
Released 17 yrs ago (12/1/2006 UTC) at by mail in To the next participant, A Bookring -- Controlled Releases
WILD RELEASE NOTES:
RELEASE NOTES:
En route to the next participant in the USA
En route to the next participant in the USA
This book arrived yesterday and I stayed up until 4am reading the entire book! A haunting story of a boy growing up in a changing country, and his struggle in friendship and family love. Could not put it down.
Sent PM to get Aramena's address.
>(:::)
Sent PM to get Aramena's address.
>(:::)
Arrived today! I have a couple of other rings ahead of it, but they will be fast easy reads so it shouldn't be long!
First, I apologize for keeping this book so long! Real life kept intruding on my reading time in the form of a daughter with school issues and then myself having some dental work. However, unlike previous journallers, I just didn't really get caught up in the story until Amir went back to Afghanistan. Until that point, I found it kind of slow going.
I've already gotten cobalt-tree's address, so I'm packing the book up today.
I've already gotten cobalt-tree's address, so I'm packing the book up today.
the book has arrived! it actually got here a few days ago but I haven't had a moment to sit down at my computer until now.
I've heard great thing about this book and very much look forward to reading it on my drive back to Toronto, Ontario.
Thank for the ring!
I've heard great thing about this book and very much look forward to reading it on my drive back to Toronto, Ontario.
Thank for the ring!
What a spectacular book, just heartbreaking in some places.
I'm certainly looking forward to picking up a copy of Hosseini's newest one now!
I've got in touch with clairemagnolia, and will be sending it to her care of LyzzyBee.
I'm certainly looking forward to picking up a copy of Hosseini's newest one now!
I've got in touch with clairemagnolia, and will be sending it to her care of LyzzyBee.
OK, it's LindyB28's books that I take care of, not Clairemagnolia's... I'll pass this to Linda when I see her tomorrow and Laura0141, I think you'll have to switch the order a little!
Cheers
Cheers
Journal Entry 20 by LindyB28 from Acocks Green, West Midlands United Kingdom on Sunday, September 23, 2007
I'm afraid I'm finding this too hard to deal with right now because I need books that are going to lift my mood so I'm going to PM MaureenHB and get it sent on to her.
Journal Entry 21 by ARTurner from Coventry, West Midlands United Kingdom on Saturday, September 29, 2007
Gratefully received by post this morning from LindyB28... thanks; I'll get onto it soon, but currently have five other ring books on my pile, as one I've committed to review by the end of next month!!
Just finished it... at last!
Shamefully sorry that I've kept it so long; life's not going terribly smoothly this year. But anyway, on with the JE...
Fabulous book; easy read, despite being set in an environment which is quite alien to me. One flaw, though: it's a very emotional book, not in itself a bad thing (I enjoyed the way The Time Traveler's Wife made me cry...), but the author does slip over the edge into sentimental now and then, which can soften the effect of harrowing events; only slightly, though, perhaps about as much as the film Schindler's List did.
I saw the film a few months ago and at the time, I said that I was glad to have seen it before reading the book, as the drama of the film (rightly) comes from the shocks. But knowing the main plot did not lessen the impact of the book much, especially as there are some very strong scenes that did not make it to the film.
I've PM'd DianeO for her address and will send the book on as soon as her reply gets to me.
Shamefully sorry that I've kept it so long; life's not going terribly smoothly this year. But anyway, on with the JE...
Fabulous book; easy read, despite being set in an environment which is quite alien to me. One flaw, though: it's a very emotional book, not in itself a bad thing (I enjoyed the way The Time Traveler's Wife made me cry...), but the author does slip over the edge into sentimental now and then, which can soften the effect of harrowing events; only slightly, though, perhaps about as much as the film Schindler's List did.
I saw the film a few months ago and at the time, I said that I was glad to have seen it before reading the book, as the drama of the film (rightly) comes from the shocks. But knowing the main plot did not lessen the impact of the book much, especially as there are some very strong scenes that did not make it to the film.
I've PM'd DianeO for her address and will send the book on as soon as her reply gets to me.
Still no reply from DianeO, so PM'ing candy-is-dandy next.
Turns out candy-is-dandy has already read this, so I'm sending it back home to Laura soon.
Journal Entry 25 by ARTurner from Coventry, West Midlands United Kingdom on Saturday, August 16, 2008
On its way by post today to Laura in Glasgow.
Received with thanks to all who made this a successful Ring and special thanks to AliceF for the RABCKs. Will be wild released.
Reserved for Cliff's Wishlist RABCK Challenge recipient.
On way to swanofkennet as part of the Wishlist Cleaning Challenge.
Journal Entry 29 by SwanOfKennet from Edinburgh, Scotland United Kingdom on Friday, September 5, 2008
This arrived earlier this week. Sorry I haven't journalled it earlier.
Thank you, Laura. I'm very much looking forward to reading it.
Thank you, Laura. I'm very much looking forward to reading it.