The recap
In 1970s Kabul, Amir is the privileged, bookish son of a wealthy and imposing businessman, desperate for a father's approval he never feels he has earned. His constant companion is Hassan, the son of the family's servant, a loyal, good-hearted boy from the persecuted Hazara minority. The two share everything, from kite-fighting tournaments to stories to the streets of a city on the edge of upheaval, until one winter afternoon Amir fails his friend in a way that will shape the rest of his life. As the monarchy falls, Soviet tanks arrive and Amir and his father start over as immigrants in California, the past refuses to stay buried. Years later, a phone call offers him a chance to make amends, if he can find the courage to go back. Hosseini's debut is a story of friendship, guilt, fathers and sons, set against the long unraveling of Afghanistan. It is emotionally direct and often devastating, told with a natural storyteller's sense of momentum.
Why read it
For readers who want a sweeping, emotional story of friendship and atonement, with a vivid window onto Afghan life before and after decades of war.
Fun facts
- 01
The novel grew out of a 25-page short story Hosseini wrote after seeing a 1999 news report that the Taliban had banned kite flying; The New Yorker and Esquire both turned it down.
- 02
Hosseini rediscovered the story in his garage in 2001 and, at a friend's urging, expanded it into a novel.
- 03
He was practicing medicine as an internist at the time, writing in the early morning hours before starting work.
- 04
It is often cited as the first novel written in English by an Afghan author.
- 05
The release of Marc Forster's 2007 film adaptation was pushed back by six weeks so the studio could get its young Afghan stars safely out of Kabul.
