Before posting on Anderson Cooper’s or Nassim Nicholas Taleb’s book I’d like to write about a book I just read. On my flight from Washington DC to Fargo, North Dakota I had the pleasure of reading The Kite Runner by Khaled Hosseini. Several of my friends and colleagues had read this book and recommended me to read it, and I bought it right away (although it sat on my book shelf for many months). Generally speaking when a book is recommended so highly it doesn’t live up to my expectations; this was not the case for The Kite Runner. The book which takes place in both Afghanistan and the United States is full of passion and candor. Publishers Weekly states:

Hosseini’s stunning debut novel starts as an eloquent Afghan version of the American immigrant experience in the late 20th century, but betrayal and redemption come to the forefront when the narrator, a writer, returns to his ravaged homeland to rescue the son of his childhood friend after the boy’s parents are shot during the Taliban takeover in the mid ’90s. Amir, the son of a well-to-do Kabul merchant, is the first-person narrator, who marries, moves to California and becomes a successful novelist. But he remains haunted by a childhood incident in which he betrayed the trust of his best friend, a Hazara boy named Hassan, who receives a brutal beating from some local bullies. After establishing himself in America, Amir learns that the Taliban have murdered Hassan and his wife, raising questions about the fate of his son, Sohrab. Spurred on by childhood guilt, Amir makes the difficult journey to Kabul, only to learn…

the boy has been enslaved by a former childhood bully who has become a prominent Taliban official. The price Amir must pay to recover the boy is just one of several brilliant, startling plot twists that make this book memorable both as a political chronicle and a deeply personal tale about how childhood choices affect our adult lives. The character studies alone would make this a noteworthy debut, from the portrait of the sensitive, insecure Amir to the multilayered development of his father, Baba, whose sacrifices and scandalous behavior are fully revealed only when Amir returns to Afghanistan and learns the true nature of his relationship to Hassan. Add an incisive, perceptive examination of recent Afghan history and its ramifications in both America and the Middle East, and the result is a complete work of literature that succeeds in exploring the culture of a previously obscure nation that has become a pivot point in the global politics of the new millennium.

I was completely enthralled with this novel. I had only around 160 pages left in the book and I decided to read for 5 or 10 minutes before bed. Instead of around 10 min I read for almost two hours finished the book (I started reading at 1 am). As soon as I finished I bought Hosseini’s second book A Thousand Splendid Suns on Amazon so I can read it as soon as possible (By the way you can get both at amazon by clicking the pictures of the books on this page. You can get The Kite Runner for $5.50 which is pretty much a steal).

The Kite Runner is a tale of fatherly and brotherly love, that most men in America can empathize with. Maybe it was just me, but a story about fighting for your fathers love and a story about the demons between you and your brother’s relationship resonates with my experiences. I absolutely loved this book. It had just enough plot twists to keep my interests, but had a story with an ending that wasn’t so much of a surprise that I was mad or let down. This book is easily the best fiction I have read in the last 3 years, and comes highly recommended from me. If you are at all interested in Afghanistan, the middle east, the Taliban or a well written story, you would enjoy this novel. If you have read it please share your opinions.