THE KITE RUNNER

Khaled Hosseini was born in Kabul, Afghanistan in 1965. In 1976 he was relocated to Paris as his father was in the Afghan Foreign Ministry. In 1980 Khaled, along with his family were granted political asylum in the United States as the Soviet army invaded Afghanistan. In 1984 Hosseini graduated from high school and enrolled in University in which he got his bachelor’s degree in Biology. In 1993 Hosseini earned a medical degree and began practising internist between 1996 and 2004. Whilst practising medicine he wrote his first novel ‘The Kite Runner’.

‘The Kite Runner’ was the first book written by Khaled Hosseini. It spans the period from before the 1979 Soviet invasion until the reconstruction following the fall of the odious Taliban. Set in the Wazir Akbar Khan district of Kabul, it tells the story of a young well-to-do boy, Amir, who betrays his best friend, Hassan, the son of the fathers’ servant. Amir is then forced to move to California when the Russians invade, where he becomes a successful writer. He then later returns to Kabul to seek forgiveness from Amir, where he receives some devastating news.

A truly outstanding book, a must read. It is a book that you just can’t stop reading, once you pick it up you won’t be able to put it down. Hosseini’s writes with a certain power in which he uses string vivid imagery, which helps to visualise the characters and what is going on around them.

by Layla-Louise Green