THE KITE RUNNERby KHALED HOSSEINI
"It may be unfair, but what happens in a few days, sometimes even a single day, can change the course of a whole lifetime." -- Baba, The Kite RunnerThe Kite Runner is a story about the relationship between two boys with different social statuses and the complicated relationship between a father and son. Set in Afghanistan and America, the novel spans three decades, providing glimpses into the little-known Afghan history and culture. Amir, the son of a prominent Kabul businessman and philanthropist, narrates the story. His best friend, Hassan, is Hazara, a lower class minority in Afghanistan. The two friends are inseparable until a fateful kite-fighting contest. As real-life political events unfold, Amir and his father must abandon their home and move to California to begin again. Many years later, a call from his father’s old partner causes Amir to journey back to a changed Afghanistan and deal with his past relationship with Hassan.Click here for our The Kite Runner resource guide (PDF).
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Khaled Hosseini was born in 1965 in Kabul, Afghanistan, the eldest of five children. In 1976, the Hosseini family moved to Paris, France for a diplomatic post, but the communist coup and the Soviet invasion prevented the family from returning to its homeland. The Hosseinis were granted political asylum in the United States, where young Khaled flourished academically. A graduate of Santa Clara University and the University of San Diego School of Medicine, Hosseini was practicing internest until the international publishing success of The Kite Runner changed his path. He lives in San Francisco with his wife and children.Visit him at khaledhosseini.com.