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The Kite Runner | 
| Author: Khaled Hosseini
Publisher: Doubleday Canada
Category: Book
Buy Collectible: CDN$ 124.99
Used (1) Collectible (1) from CDN$ 124.99
Rating:  167 reviews
Sales Rank: 69718
Media: Hardcover
Pages: 384
Shipping Weight (lbs): 0
ISBN: 0385660065
EAN: 9780385660068
ASIN: 0385660065
Publication Date: June 3, 2003
Availability: Usually ships within 1 - 2 business days
Shipping: Expedited shipping available
Shipping: International shipping available
Condition: First Canadian ed--complete number line; Some minor dust jacket scuffing, otherwise in great condition, sharp pages, tight spine. Ships daily from the U.S. Please allow 10-days for delivery
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| Editorial Reviews:
Amazon.ca
The "kite runner" of Khaled Hosseini's deeply moving fiction debut is an illiterate Afghan boy with an uncanny instinct for predicting exactly where a downed kite will land. Growing up in the city of Kabul in the early 1970s, Hassan was narrator Amir's closest friend even though the loyal 11-year-old with "a face like a Chinese doll" was the son of Amir's father's servant and a member of Afghanistan's despised Hazara minority. But in 1975, on the day of Kabul's annual kite-fighting tournament, something unspeakable happened between the two boys.p Narrated by Amir as a 40-year-old novelist living in California, IThe Kite Runner/I tells the gripping story of a boyhood friendship destroyed by jealousy, fear, and the kind of ruthless evil that transcends mere politics. Running parallel to this personal narrative of loss and redemption is the story of modern Afghanistan and of Amir's equally guilt-ridden relationship with the war-torn city of his birth. The first Afghan novel to be written in English, IThe Kite Runner/I begins in the final days of King Zahir Shah's 40-year reign and traces the country's fall from a secluded oasis to a tank-strewn battlefield controlled by the Russians and then the trigger-happy Taliban. When Amir returns to Kabul to rescue Hassan's orphaned child, the personal and the political get tangled together in a plot that is as suspenseful as it is taut with feeling.p The son of an Afghan diplomat whose family received political asylum in the United States in 1980, Hosseini combines the unflinching realism of a war correspondent with the satisfying emotional pull of master storytellers such as Rohinton Mistry. Like the kite that is its central image, the story line of this mesmerizing first novel occasionally dips and seems almost to dive to the ground. But Hosseini ultimately keeps everything airborne until his heartrending conclusion in an American picnic park. I--Lisa Alward/I
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| Customer Reviews: Read 162 more reviews...
 Light and Darkness in Afghanistan October 18, 2008
Graham Worthington (Toronto, Canada)
Opening in Afghanistan in the mid-seventies, this novel tells the story of a young Afghani man's struggle to win his father's approval, against a background of his country's turbulent politics, where control passes through the hands of various kings into those of Russia, and finally into the hands of the religiously fanatical Taliban. br / br /Yet to me the appeal of the story lies not the changes of government, nor in the depiction of a different, Islamic culture, but in the all too human story of the hero, Amir, as he is caught in his own personal turmoil. Love, fear and ambition war together, and the price of his success is betrayal and guilt. Were he to have acted out his life in any other time, place or culture, it would have made little difference. The happiness and pain of his life are personal, and the background of violent change from feudalism to communism to theocracy remains just that - a background. br / br /This sets me to thinking - as a good novel should, - that we are all much the same. Skin colour can change, the language in which we express our belief in God, or the lack of it. Though these change, the essentials of our lives do not. br / br /It seems to me that the real politics, the real struggle in life, is between two spirits. One is optimistic and cheerful, that recognises love and says to strive for a better world, and one is dark and full of fear, and says to lash out and hurt, and destroy the world in hatred and despair. br / br /These two are universal, and greater than all differences in culture or religion, and this novel speaks to me because I find that these two spirits also live in me, and battle with each other. br / br /Graham Worthington, author, Wake of the Raven
non-stop July 16, 2008
Patrizia (Bellissimo Montreal)
I could not put this book down, and I am a very busy mom!!! Great story!
Never would have thought... June 8, 2008
WP (Vancouver, BC, Ca)
This is a book that I never would have set out to purchase myself, but a friend insisted that I read it. Wow! Definitely one of the best books I have ever read. A page-turner, suspenseful and heart-felt. A world I honestly did not know a lot about, but am so very glad I took the time to read up on. It was a simple read and difficult to put down. I hope that my children will read this book in a couple of years when they are older...I believe this is a story that all parents will appreciate, and all children need to be made aware of.....highly, highly recommended.
Amazing! March 28, 2008
J. Furigay (GTA, Canada)
I don't think I've ever read a book that was so moving and so surprising. There were times where I was in such awe because of what happened in the story! I'm surely gonna remember this book!
 Heartfelt story March 26, 2008
C McDougall (Oshawa, Ontario Canada)
Well written story that gives great insight into life in a struggling country. Really makes you appreciate what we take for granted. Looking forward to future creations of this author.
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