One day three boys named Assef, Wali, and Kamal threaten Amir, but Hassan scares them away with his slingshot. Amir and Hassan fly kites and read stories together, though Hassan does chores while Amir goes to school. Amir feels he is a disappointing son to Baba, but he is close to Baba’s friend Rahim Khan. They have two Hazara (an ethnic minority) servants, Ali and his son Hassan, who is Amir’s closest playmate. There is something inherently fascinating about listening to the words spoken again and again.The narrator, Amir, grows up in a luxurious home in Kabul, Afghanistan, with his father Baba. Finally, don't be surprised if you find yourself practicing the language of the characters while you're listening. The author succeeds in putting the listener into the shoes of his characters. Overall, after listening to this book you will feel as if you have a friend from that part of the world. Listen to this book if you like stories about foreign places and customs and tales of sons and their fathers. The brutality of the situation is Afghanistan is painted bluntly but not without artistry. Amir's relationship with Hassan is heartbreaking and satisfying, alternately confusing and then brought into crystal clear focus by a plot turn. The last two hours of the book feel a little like a denoument that takes too long to resolve itself but upon further reflection I don't think there is any other way to tell the tale while being true to the characters. This, more than anything, kept me reading because I was always certain there would be an element of the story I could not foresee. The plotting has both predictable turns, and surprising ones where the author refuses to take the easy way out. The writing is good, and having the author read the tape-version helps keep the pronunciations accurate and the sentiment honest. This book is worth a listen for the window it opens upon a life not lived by the majority of Americans going about our lives with our ipods and books-on-tape: a hard life, a basic one, yet filled with humanity and wisdom. My favorite phrase form the book: For you my friend, a thousand times over. It was also a surprise as after a long time a non-thriller was so compelling and absorbing. This was a good listen even through it did not fall under the genera of books I usually listen to. I could visualize everything and see it like a movie. All scenes in the book including the kite battles are well written. A folk hero like father, his servants son as a friend, a local bully and an immigrant Afghani General the characters are interesting and events around them thought provoking. The story is about a privileged weakling in Kabul and how he grows up with a moral burden, migrates to US and finally returns and to redeem himself. Also, do not be surprised if you chuckle aloud while listening. It will touch your soul and do not be surprised if you quietly wipe a tear or two during the listen as I did. A classic, gripping, engrossing story full of powerful characters. If one is searching for a history lesson embedded in a good plot this is not the book. The book is not a lesson in Afghan history or Islam. This book is written and read in the precise way it should have been. But through the devastation, Khaled Hosseini offers hope for redemption. Written against a backdrop of history that has not been told in fiction before, The Kite Runner describes the rich culture and beauty of a land in the process of being destroyed. It is about the bonds between fathers and sons, and the power of fathers over sons - their love, their sacrifices, and their lies. The Kite Runner is a novel about friendship and betrayal, and about the price of loyalty. And yet he cannot leave the memory of Hassan behind him. When Amir and his father flee the country for a new life in California, Amir thinks that he has escaped his past. Their intertwined lives, and their fates, reflect the eventual tragedy of the world around them. Raised in the same household and sharing the same wet nurse, Amir and Hassan grow up in different worlds: Amir is the son of a prominent and wealthy man, while Hassan, the son of Amir's father's servant, is a Hazara - a shunned ethnic minority. Taking us from Afghanistan in the final days of its monarchy to the present, The Kite Runner is the unforgettable and beautifully told story of the friendship between two boys growing up in Kabul.
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