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 enlarge | Author: Khaled Hosseini
Publisher: Bloomsbury Publishing PLC
Category: Book
List Price: £7.99
Buy Used: £0.38
You Save: £7.61 (95%)
New (47) Used (58) Collectible (1) from £0.38
Avg. Customer Rating:  409 reviews
Sales Rank: 58
Media: Paperback
Edition: New edition
Pages: 336
Shipping Weight (lbs): 0.5
Dimensions (in): 7.7 x 5 x 0.9
ISBN: 0747566534
Dewey Decimal Number: 813
EAN: 9780747566533
ASIN: 0747566534
Publication Date: June 7, 2004
Availability: Usually dispatched within 1-2 business days
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| Customer Reviews:
 Run and get the Kite! November 6, 2008
1 out of 1 found this review helpful
Here's a book everyone should read. No exception. Please do so.
I was totally taken by this book, cried a couple of times whilst reading it and even sometime after i had finished it i still remembered the characters so well. Haunting but oh so worth it!
A must have in you own private collection of books, even if its a small one.
I have also read 1000 splendid suns. top book too! waiting for Khaled's next book... please hurry!!!
 Boring US part of the book October 23, 2008
1 out of 2 found this review helpful
Good, exciting first half of the book. The plot disappoints around the time Baba dies. Surely there's more to come, but I'm afraid I'm not going to plough through the poorly edited middle of the book to get to the better end I'm afraid. Quite disappointed overall.
Why is this book so popular?
A Puzzling Oddity October 19, 2008
2 out of 3 found this review helpful
It's hard to imagine how someone could call saccharine a book that contains genocide, adultery, pedophilia, rape, and any number of other atrocities, but there you have it, if this book has one quality it is its ability to somehow render all of these actions in a sentimental light. It is an amazing feat, if albeit an unintentional one.
From the get-go this book had rubbed me the wrong way for some reason I couldn't quite place. I'm not squeamish, I don't flinch from gritty renditions, I enjoy having my boundaries of belief, outrage and moral standing pushed to the edges if for no other reason than to see where I stand with myself, but this book didn't do it. I'd turn every page not sure of why I had this uneasy feeling that everything was too sweet. In the end, I think it comes from the over-riding feeling (spoiler alert) that no matter what, everything will be all right in the end. It doesn't matter than someone gets raped, that a boy loses his family, that a race gets massacred, because this ham-fisted novel has assured us that all of these events are only there for no other reason than to aid the main character in finding redemption.
The book is most comfortable when it is taking its sentimental journey through Afghanistan of the 1970s, both lamenting and rejoicing a lost youth, something anyone lucky enough to have experienced a childhood will identify with. Its when the plot ramps into gear that the book rapidly finds itself out of its depth, struggling to cope with the severity of the situations it wishes to deal with.
Light and darkness in Afghanistan October 18, 2008
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
Graham Worthington, author, Wake of the Raven
For you, a thousand times... October 10, 2008
This book is absolutely, amazingly superb. It was so captivating and moving. I picked it up as I wanted something to read on my train ride home from uni. This book is a great read, an excellent piece of work and i would read it over and over again. I recommend this book to everyone.
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