The Kite Runner

Author's name: Khaled Hosseini

This is the debut novel by Afghan-American novelist Khaled Hosseini, which tells the story of Amir, a young boy from the Wazir Akbar Khan neighborhood of Kabul, and his close friend Hassan, his Hazara father's servant. The story is set against a turbulent backdrop of events, from the fall of the Afghan monarchy, through the Soviet military intervention, the exodus of refugees to Pakistan and the United States, and the rise of the Taliban regime.

Khaled Hosseini describes the book as a story about the relationship between father and son, emphasizing the familial aspects of the narrative, an element he continued to use in his later works. Feelings of guilt and attempts to atone for them are prominent throughout the book, with a scene in which Hassan is assaulted and Amir fails to defend his friend. The second half of the book focuses on Amir's attempts to atone for his guilt as he attempts to save his friend's son two decades later.