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You Should Certainly Pick Up a Copy! The Kite Runner is a fictional book that weaves much fact into it. We're introduced to Amir, a Pashtun Afghani, and his life before the fall of the Monarchy in the mid-70's. Amir lives a comfortable life in an Afghanistan far removed from today's Afghanistan. He lives with his father, Baba, knowing his mother had died during childbirth with him. They have a servant, Ali and his servant's son, Hassan, who also lost his mother though not to death but to running away, out of shame for her physically husband and her hareliped baby boy. Ali and Hassan are Hazara, which I get the impression is a minority in Afghanistan and not a favorable group, societally speaking. We follow the boys through their childhood. Ever mindful of their societal status yet feeling a kinship that Amir almost toys with. He taunts Hassan's loyalty asking him if he'd eat dirt for him, or do anything for him... Hassan's loyalty and love runs deep. Where Amir's first word was "Baba", Hassan's first word was "Amir". Hassan would do anything for Amir, saying "for you a thousand times over". In their childhood kites were a huge activity and kite competitions were notably popular events where kites were 'battled' in a competition that left only one kite in the sky. Special "glass" string was employed to cut the lines of kites and kite runners would go scrambling to bring back a trophy of a cut kite. The last kite to be caught was especially honorable and it was one such kite that tested Hassan's loyalty to Amir and Amir's willingness to stand up for someone he cared about, regardless of class. A horrific scene takes place where Amir is unable to help Hassan, this inability will haunt him for years, as will the horrific act that he witnesses and hopes no one knows he saw. He tries to write it off, using class even for Hassan was "only a Hazara" yet the guilt haunts him. Secrets fester, especially those that we could have done something about. Amir, ever mindful that his father's love is a gift he treasures yet rarely receives, is also one that Hassan gets as well. This bothers him always as much as the secret that dwells within him and he devises a horrific plan to push Hassan and Ali out of his life, in hopes that the secret will also leave him, as well as the guilt and remorse. Time marches on and in the novel so does events within Afghanistan. Hosseini weaves together what happens to Afghanistan as the Monarchy falls and later as the Russians move in and take over and how this affects Amir and his father. They end up fleeing an increasingly ravaged Afghanistan for better hopes in America. And there the book stays for years, as Amir finishes schooling, goes on to college and while he doesn't pick a major his father would, finds success with it nevertheless. He also finds a wife and we're taken through the cultural customs of an Afghani courtship and eventually a wedding. Years pass and Amir becomes a successful author, his wife though they try hard, remains unable to conceive a child, Baba contracts and ends up losing the battle with illness. Changes happen as they always do in one's life. Until a fateful day when Amir gets a message from his Baba's old friend back in the Middle East. Amir's called away from America to see this man who is dying and has a mission for Amir. By now the Taliban are ruling Afghanistan, he finds out the deplorable fate of his childhood friend, Hassan and is given a mission that will not only absolve his guilt and make right with Hassan the disloyalty he committed, but also change his life forever. He gets to see first hand how his homeland has changed, how attitudes have changed and he finds himself longing for the days of childhood when Afghanistan was safer and more free and he and Hassan were like brothers, yet not quite. I don't want to tell too much and ruin this book for anyone. It's such a moving book, emotional and reads so biographical as you feel this MUST have happened to SOMEONE and it has, many times over. Amir must deal with the changing face of Afghanistan as he works on this mission, he must face the Taliban and make right what he as a child did wrong. The ending is NOT predictable and it's not happily ever after. It's a bittersweet, realistic ending that leaves one wanting to know more. I know I did. I realized too, in shame, how little I really knew about Afghanistan. How little they taught us in school and I understand so much more now, yet I know not enough. There's a huge cultural divide out there and this book, while fiction, helps bridge that gap for a few hundred pages. This is a first novel for Khaled Hosseini but it certainly does NOT read like one. It's moving and graphic and disturbing in all the right parts, oddly enough. It made me think and sob with what humans are capable of doing for one another and to one another on many fronts, both personal and societal. Hosseini himself was born in Afghanistan, his family moving to America in the 80's as some families did. Yet others stayed back and this novel touches on the lives of both. There wasn't one slow part in this book. I devoured each page often staying up well past my "bedtime" to do so, having to know what would happen next. I really have no complaints about the book. It's insightful and moving and should be read by all. Don't Miss it! Another wonderful, much different, oddity I recommend is THE LOSERS' CLUB: Complete Restored Edition by Richard Perez -- a great Amazon quick-pick.