General fiction

The Kite Runner

by Khaled Hosseini

371 pages · First published 2003

Amir grows up in Kabul as the privileged son of a wealthy man, while Hassan, the son of the family servant, is his devoted childhood companion. A devastating act of cowardice during a kite-fighting tournament destroys their friendship and follows Amir long after war forces him to leave Afghanistan for the United States. Years later, a summons back toward his past offers a painful opportunity to confront what he did and failed to do. Khaled Hosseini’s novel is a story of friendship, betrayal, fathers and sons, exile, and attempted redemption set against decades of Afghan upheaval.