Kite Runner

I totally forgot to write about the book "Kite Runner" that I finished reading almost 2 months back now.

“Kite Runner” (by Khaled Hosseni) is a really powerful book with a very touching and heartening story. It is quite traumatic in parts and will have a complete grip on you.

The story traces the life of an Afghan boy, Amir, from when he was a kid in Afghanistan to him becoming a young man, married and now living in California. The book starts with a phone call after which Amir must now return to his native land to seek redemption for what happened one winter season. As a kid Amir lived a privileged life and his best friend, Hassan, is the household servant's son. They grow up flying kites, reading books, telling stories and do everything together. But everything changes on a fateful winter day. On a day when Amir and Hassan have just won the town's prestigious kite flying championship, an unspeakable incident, starting with Hassan's haunting words for Amir "For you, a thousand times over...” changes everything in their relationship.

This book also opens your eyes to the turmoil and misery in the lives of the normal people in Afghanistan, and how different it is from the stereotypical view the world holds of that country and its people.

An extremely well written book from which you can pick numerous memorable passages. The opening para itself is quite striking. Here is a part of it:
"...it's wrong what they say about the past, I've learnt, about how you can bury it. Because the past claws its way out."