“The Kite Runner” is a marvellous tale of loyalty, courage, betrayal and redemption, which will often bring lump to your throat. The author of the novel, Khaled Hosseini, was born in Kabul, Afghanistan and his family received political asylum in the USA in 1980. Physician by profession in California, “The Kite Runner” is his first book.
The story revolves around two kids of Afghanistan, Amir and Hassan, where former is the son of a successful businessman in Kabul and other is his servant’s son. Both, almost of same age, grew up together and shared best moments of their childhood, which was not accepted to the contemporary upper cast society except Amir’s broadminded father. Hassan was often tested for his loyalty by Amir and every time Hassan said.
“For you, a thousand times over.”
Both of them shared a common passion of kite flying. Hassan never missed to catch the detached kite and people, always amazed with Hassan’s perfection, often said that he follows the shadow of the swaying kite and wondered how he always knew in advance where it is going to fall.
Their lives flipped 180 degrees on such a fateful eve of a kite flying competition when Amir’s one mistake was going to haunt him for the rest of his life. However, his greatest quality of being honest to himself helped him a bit to focus on other things in life, like education, career, marriage etc. after fleeing to America with his father post Russian invasion of Afghanistan, but he never got redemption. As they say “fortune favors the brave”, so life gave him a second chance, an opportunity to get absolution.
Khaled Hosseini’s eloquent and impactful narration will take you to a tour of the blissful times of Afghanistan before Russian invasion and the cruel, painful and torturous era of Taliban rule. His blunt and extraordinary writing skill successfully creates a long-lasting image of the contemporary Afghanistan.
Following excerpt gives a gist of his skilful writing.
“I slept through almost the entire four-hour ride to Islamabad. I dreamed a lot, and most of it I only remember as a hodgepodge of images, snippets of visual memory flashing in my head like cards in a Rolodex: Baba marinating lamb for my thirteenth birthday party. Soraya and I making love for the first time, the sun rising in the east, our ears still ringing from the wedding music, her henna-painted hands laced in mine. Baba saying that the only sin that mattered was theft. ‘When you tell a lie, you steal a man’s right to the truth’. Rahim Khan on the phone, telling me there was a way to be good again. ‘A way to be good again…..’”
This book is a bunch of various emotions like courage, sacrifice, guilt, joy, jealousy and many more, but surely it will leave you with a smile at the end.
Thanks,
Keep reading and keep nourishing your soul…… 🙂
Abhisht Sharma
#world of poignant stories
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