Summaries and Customer Reviews are supplied by Amazon.com

Taking us from Afghanistan in the final days of the monarchy to the present, The Kite Runner is the unforgettable and beautifully told story of the friendship between two boys growing up in Kabul. Raised in the same household and sharing the same wet nurse, Amir and Hassan grow up in different worlds: Amir is the son of a prominent and wealthy man, while Hassan, the son of Amir's father's servant, is a Hazara -- a shunned ethnic minority. Their intertwined lives, and their fates, reflect the eventual tragedy of the world around them. When Amir and his father flee the country for a new life in California, Amir thinks that he has escaped his past. And yet he cannot leave the memory of Hassan behind him.

The Kite Runner is a novel about friendship and betrayal, and about the price of loyalty. It is about the bonds between fathers and sons, and the power of fathers over sons -- their love, their sacrifices, and their lies. Written against a backdrop of history that has not been told in fiction before, The Kite Runner describes the rich culture and beauty of a land in the process of being destroyed. But through the devastation, Khaled Hosseini offers hope: through the novel's faith in the power of reading and storytelling, and in the possibilities he shows us for redemption.

Average Customer Rating:

look out for the kites

Customer Rating:

The book centers around an Afghan named Amir who as a child pretty much srews over his friend because of his weaknesses in Afghanastan then moves to America with his father and then lastly he has to go back to Afghanastan to save his friend's son to make up for the wrongs he has done. The first part of the book takes place in early 70's Afghanastan when it was doing pretty good and before the wars. I liked this part of the book the most because for one thing you get to see how nice Afghanastan was a few decades ago and you learn that there hasn't always been war over there or the Taliban. You don't really get to learn that much about the culture, or at least that's how I felt about it, but you get a little insight of it. Another thing is that I feel like this part of the book is more well written than the rest of the book because it seems more like an autobiographical account. After Amir and his father move to America the story seems to lose steam and pretty much doesn't go anywhere for a while until he goes to Pakistan to meet his fathers old friend who sends him to Afghanastan to find his chilhood friend's son. I liked his visit back to Afghanastan because you get to see how horrible all the wars and the Taliban have transformed the once beautiful cities into wastlands. However during the middle part of the book there are a lot of coincidences which I was able to be okay with but with, because this is fiction, but some of them are just unbelievable. Another thing is that you could see what was going to happen way before it did. Overall this is a decent book that gives a glimpse of Afghanastan past and present even thought the characters are ficticious and I wouldn't highly recommend it but I would recommend it if this sounds like your kind of book.

Must read	Customer Rating:
The book is fascinating, throws you into a world that is hard to comprehend for some and yet a lot of what is being described are things everyone of us "westerners" feels and does as well. A must read.

Review for the original Kite Runner	Customer Rating:
This review is for the original Kite Runner - I have not read the illustrated version: The book is fascinating, throws you into a world that is hard to comprehend for some and yet a lot of what is being described are things everyone of us "westerners" feels and does as well. A must read.

The Voice	Customer Rating:
Awesome book, I so wanted to take this young man outside and strangle him! The rollercoaster this story takes you on is great. I felt so much anger toward the main character. How could someone be so cold! Then sorrow when death entered the story. And the end was an wonderful release. This is a very intense read. I must say I had to put this book down several times...but only for a few minutes.

Beautifully touching story!

Customer Rating:

There are few books that have moved me in all my life, & Kite Runner is definitely one of them. I was so moved, I found my eyes tearing up occasionally. The author did an extraordinary job with the story. It was beautifully written & powerfully moving. I did not want the story to end. Listen to the audio version if you can. The author himself is the narrator & he does a great job story telling as well! I highly recommend this book!