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. So why does Amir feel such envy towards his friend? Then, what happens to Hassan on the afternoon of the tournament is to shatter all their lives, and define their futures. Hassan is taunted and jeered at by Amir's school friends he is merely a servant living in a shack at the back of Amir's house. But Hassan is a Shi'a Muslim and this is 1970s Afghanistan. His loyal friend Hassan is the best kite runner that Amir has ever seen, and he promises to help him - for Hassan always helps Amir out of trouble. Amir is determined not just to win the competition but to run the last kite and bring it home triumphantly, to prove to his father that he has the makings of a man. He has failed to do so through academia or brawn, but the one area where they connect is the annual kite fighting tournament.

Twelve year old Amir is desperate to win the approval of his father Baba, one of the richest and most respected merchants in Kabul. This is a classic word-of-mouth novel and is sure to become as universally loved as The God of Small Things and The Glass Palace.

Set in Afghanistan and the United States between the 1970s to the present day, it is a heartbreaking tale of a young boy, Amir, and his best friend who are torn apart. This is a wonderful, beautiful epic of a novel.

The kite runner book cover