tamaranth | 2026/028: The Kite Runner

2026/028: The Kite Runner — Khalid Hosseini

"There is only one sin, and that is theft... When you kill a man, you steal a life. You steal his wife's right to a husband, rob his children of a father. When you tell a lie, you steal someone's right to the truth. When you cheat, you steal the right to fairness.”

This novel, by an expatriate Afghani author, explores guilt, betrayal and redemption in Afghanistan. The narrator is Amir, son of a wealthy Pashtan father ('Baba'), whose mother died giving birth to him. His closest friend is Hassan, the son of Amir's father's servant Ali: his mother ran away when he was little. The Hazara (the ethnic group to which Hassan and Ali belong) are oppressed, discriminated against and mocked. Baba, to young Amir's horror, treats Hassan as well as he treats Amir himself. The boys enjoy the traditional Afghan sport of kite-fighting, and Hassan is Amir's 'kite runner', pursuing the conquered kites with preternatural accuracy.

Amir's greatest kite-fighting triumph -- when Baba will finally be proud of him -- is overshadowed by Hassan being attacked and raped by a local bully, Assef. Amir witnesses the attack but is too scared to intervene. He's unable to reconcile his guilt and their friendship, and becomes cold and cruel towards Hassan. Eventually he fakes a theft and forces his father to dismiss Ali and Hassan.

Five years later comes the Soviet invasion: Baba and Amir escape, ending up in California. And fifteen years after that, Amir -- now married, though childless, and still racked with guilt -- receives a letter from a family friend, asking him to come back to Afghanistan: 'There is a way to be good again'.

This was a fascinating insight into Afghani life, and a harrowing story. (I listened to the audiobook, very well read by the author: I think I might have stopped reading if I'd had a print/Kindle copy.) Hassan's unrequited loyalty was pitiable: Amir's cowardice -- which extends into his adult life, in some respects -- was contemptible: I sympathised with both. At the heart of it, for me, was Amir's relationship with his father, and his fragile sense of superiority when it came to Hassan. Amir is shattered when he realises that his father, who's always insisted that theft is the worst crime and that a lie is theft of the truth, turns out not to have been wholly honest with him.

The final third of the novel, set in Taliban-controlled Afghanistan, is horrific. Power corrupts, and bullies don't change... There is a happy ending of sorts, but that doesn't stop The Kite Runner being tragic, distressing and harrowing. It's also an excellent insight into life as a refugee in America, though sadly things seem to have been easier for immigrants in the 1980s than they are now.

One drawback of audiobooks is that I can't keep a record of the bits I really liked. But there were some excellent descriptions of daily life and of landscape, and the various journeys out of and back to Kabul were rivetting.