"The Kite Runner"

From Amazon.Com, here is part of Gisele Toueg’s description:

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The Kite Runner follows the story of Amir, the privileged son of a wealthy businessman in Kabul, and Hassan, the son of Amir’s father’s servant. As children in the relatively stable Afghanistan of the early 1970s, the boys are inseparable. They spend idyllic days running kites and telling stories of mystical places and powerful warriors until an unspeakable event changes the nature of their relationship forever, and eventually cements their bond in ways neither boy could have ever predicted. Even after Amir and his father flee to America, Amir remains haunted by his cowardly actions and disloyalty. In part, it is these demons and the sometimes impossible quest for forgiveness that bring him back to his war-torn native land after it comes under Taliban rule.

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At times this book is a coming of age story. But on the darker side. Realizing that you have to sleep in the bed you made. With Amir, he continues to progress through his demons. Yet there always is something to remind him of what he did. And one of them is his father, unknowingly but through a secret he kept from Amir, and takes to his grave. It was part of the reason he was asked to come back to Afghanistan.

I hate giving away some things that happen, but another part of what Amir goes back for is Sohrab, Hassan’s son, though he doesn’t know it at the time. And when you learn of Sohrab’s life, you clearly see innocence lost with some unspeakable acts he has endured. Then as they get closer to bringing him out of that war-torn area, the disappointment of roadblocks for such a young kid, he takes his tragedy even farther, and compounds the feeling. It is also brought around when the ending of the book seemed to be headed for too tidy and happy an ending. Though the ending is hopeful, it is far from wonderful.

One of the blurbs on the back cover says that it is a haunting tale, and I totally agree. Though the books seems to offer a lot to the reader. Or at least I took much from it. I found so much I had a hard time putting it down. Even after I was done reading it.

8/10