The Kite Runner (Riverhead Essential Editions)

The Kite Runner (Riverhead Essential Editions)
by Khaled Hosseini

The Kite Runner (Riverhead Essential Editions)
List Price: $16.00
Our Price: $3.98
You Save: $12.02 (75%)
Availability: Usually ships in 1-2 business days
Buy Used: from $2.30 (click here)
Category: Book
See more book details and other editions


(Click here)
Buy this book at online book store in your country
Canada | UK | Germany | France

Book Summary Information

Author: Khaled Hosseini
Edition: Paperback
Published: 2005-09-06
ISBN: 1594481776
Number of pages: 384
Publisher: Riverhead Trade

Book Reviews of The Kite Runner (Riverhead Essential Editions)

Book Review: HEART-RENDING
Summary: 5 Stars

A tale of innocence, sadness and redemption that both troubles and heals the heart. You will see human nature in its starkest expression.

Summary of The Kite Runner (Riverhead Essential Editions)

In his debut novel, The Kite Runner, Khaled Hosseini accomplishes what very few contemporary novelists are able to do. He manages to provide an educational and eye-opening account of a country's political turmoil--in this case, Afghanistan--while also developing characters whose heartbreaking struggles and emotional triumphs resonate with readers long after the last page has been turned over. And he does this on his first try.

The Kite Runner follows the story of Amir, the privileged son of a wealthy businessman in Kabul, and Hassan, the son of Amir's father's servant. As children in the relatively stable Afghanistan of the early 1970s, the boys are inseparable. They spend idyllic days running kites and telling stories of mystical places and powerful warriors until an unspeakable event changes the nature of their relationship forever, and eventually cements their bond in ways neither boy could have ever predicted. Even after Amir and his father flee to America, Amir remains haunted by his cowardly actions and disloyalty. In part, it is these demons and the sometimes impossible quest for forgiveness that bring him back to his war-torn native land after it comes under Taliban rule. ("...I wondered if that was how forgiveness budded, not with the fanfare of epiphany, but with pain gathering its things, packing up, and slipping away unannounced in the middle of the night.")

Some of the plot's turns and twists may be somewhat implausible, but Hosseini has created characters that seem so real that one almost forgets that The Kite Runner is a novel and not a memoir. At a time when Afghanistan has been thrust into the forefront of America's collective consciousness ("people sipping lattes at Starbucks were talking about the battle for Kunduz"), Hosseini offers an honest, sometimes tragic, sometimes funny, but always heartfelt view of a fascinating land. Perhaps the only true flaw in this extraordinary novel is that it ends all too soon. --Gisele Toueg


A Stunning Novel of Hope and Redemption

Taking us from Afghanistan in the final days of the monarchy to the present, The Kite Runner is the unforgettable and beautifully told story of the friendship between two boys growing up in Kabul. 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. Their intertwined lives, and their fates, reflect the eventual tragedy of the world around them. When Amir and his father flee the country for a new life in California, Amir thinks that he has escaped his past. And yet he cannot leave the memory of Hassan behind him.

The Kite Runner is a novel about friendship and betrayal, and about the price of loyalty. It is about the bonds between fathers and sons, and the power of fathers over sons -- their love, their sacrifices, and their lies. 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. But through the devastation, Khaled Hosseini offers hope: through the novel's faith in the power of reading and storytelling, and in the possibilities he shows us for redemption.


"Taking us from Afghanistan in the final days of the monarchy to the present, The Kite Runner is the unforgettable, beautifully told story of the friendship between two boys growing up in Kabul. Raised in the same household and sharing the same wet nurse, Amir and Hassan nonetheless 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, member of a shunned ethnic minority. Their intertwined lives, and their fates, reflect the eventual tragedy of the world around them. When the Soviets invade and Amir and his father flee the country for a new life in California, Amir thinks that he has escaped his past. And yet he cannot leave the memory of Hassan behind him. The Kite Runner is a novel about friendship, betrayal, and the price of loyalty. It is about the bonds between fathers and sons, and the power of their lies. Written against a 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. But with the devastation, Khaled Hosseini also gives us hope: through the novel's faith in the power of reading and storytelling, and in the possibilities he shows for redemption."

Contemporary Books

Book Subjects
Most talked about in Serious Indian and Pakistani novels
Shalimar the Clown: A Novel ImageShalimar the Clown: A Novel
by Salman Rushdie
Random House Trade Paperbacks; Published: 2006-10-10; Paperback; Book
Best price: $5.95
Price in other shops: $14.95
Midnight's Children: A Novel ImageMidnight's Children: A Novel
by Salman Rushdie
Random House Trade Paperbacks; Published: 2006-04-04; Paperback; Book
Best price: $8.44
Price in other shops: $14.95
Sister of My Heart: A Novel ImageSister of My Heart: A Novel
by Chitra Divakaruni
Anchor; Published: 2000-01-18; Paperback; Book
Best price: $3.97
Price in other shops: $13.95
The Space Between Us: A Novel (P.S.) ImageThe Space Between Us: A Novel (P.S.)
by Thrity Umrigar
Harper Perennial; Published: 2007-02-01; Paperback; Book
Best price: $8.14
Price in other shops: $14.95
Mistress: A Novel ImageMistress: A Novel
by Anita Nair
St. Martin's Griffin; Published: 2006-08-08; Paperback; Book
Best price: $3.84
Price in other shops: $14.95
Ladies Coupe ImageLadies Coupe
by Anita Nair
St. Martin's Griffin; Published: 2004-06-01; Paperback; Book
Best price: $3.68
Price in other shops: $14.95
Brick Lane: A Novel ImageBrick Lane: A Novel
by Monica Ali
Scribner; Published: 2004-05-25; Paperback; Book
Best price: $6.56
Price in other shops: $15.00
The Splendor of Silence: A Novel ImageThe Splendor of Silence: A Novel
by Indu Sundaresan
Washington Square Press; Published: 2007-09-18; Paperback; Book
Best price: $0.89
Price in other shops: $14.00
The Feast of Roses: A Novel ImageThe Feast of Roses: A Novel
by Indu Sundaresan
Washington Square Press; Published: 2004-05-18; Paperback; Book
Best price: $7.65
Price in other shops: $15.00
The Twentieth Wife: A Novel ImageThe Twentieth Wife: A Novel
by Indu Sundaresan
Washington Square Press; Published: 2003-02-18; Paperback; Book
Best price: $4.49
Price in other shops: $14.00
Similar Books and other products
A Short History of Asia, Second Edition ImageA Short History of Asia, Second Edition
by Colin Mason
Palgrave Macmillan; Published: 2005-11-12; Paperback; Book
Best price: $19.97
Price in other shops: $31.95
Certain Trumpets: The Nature of Leadership ImageCertain Trumpets: The Nature of Leadership
by Garry Wills
Simon & Schuster; Published: 1995-05-09; Paperback; Book
Best price: $10.64
Price in other shops: $14.00
Novel without a Name ImageNovel without a Name
by Duong Thu Huong
Penguin (Non-Classics); Published: 1996-06-01; Paperback; Book
Best price: $6.50
Price in other shops: $14.00
Commodore Ellsworth P. Bertholf: First Commandant of the Coast Guard (Library of Naval Biography) ImageCommodore Ellsworth P. Bertholf: First Commandant of the Coast Guard (Library of Naval Biography)
by C. Douglas Kroll
US Naval Institute Press; Published: 2002-10; Hardcover; Book
Best price: $3.43
Price in other shops: $39.95
The Coast Guard in World War I: An Untold Story ImageThe Coast Guard in World War I: An Untold Story
by Alex R. Larzelere
US Naval Institute Press; Published: 2003-06-30; Hardcover; Book
Best price: $16.49
Price in other shops: $37.50
They Had To Go Out: True Stories of America's Coastal Lifesavers ImageThey Had To Go Out: True Stories of America's Coastal Lifesavers
by Wreck and Rescue Journal
Avery Color Studios; Published: 2007-01-01; Paperback; Book
Best price: $16.95
GradeSaver (TM) ClassicNotes The Kite Runner: Study Guide ImageGradeSaver (TM) ClassicNotes The Kite Runner: Study Guide
by Khaled Hosseini
GradeSaver, LLC; Published: 2007-10-18; Paperback; Book
Best price: $7.99
The Pendleton Disaster off Cape Cod: The Greatest Small Boat Rescue in Coast Guard History ImageThe Pendleton Disaster off Cape Cod: The Greatest Small Boat Rescue in Coast Guard History
by Theresa Mitchell Barbo, John Galluzzo, W. Russell Webster
The History Press; Published: 2007-07-01; Paperback; Book
Best price: $12.70
Price in other shops: $19.99
In Search of the Kite Runner (Popular Insights) ImageIn Search of the Kite Runner (Popular Insights)
by Judi Slayden Hayes
Chalice Press; Published: 2007-03-15; Paperback; Book
Best price: $7.40
Price in other shops: $12.99
Bookclub-In-A-Box Discusses the Novel the Kite Runner by Khaled Hosseini (Bookclub-in-a-Box) ImageBookclub-In-A-Box Discusses the Novel the Kite Runner by Khaled Hosseini (Bookclub-in-a-Box)
by Marilyn Herbert
Bookclub-In-A-Box; Published: 2006-09-01; Paperback; Book
Best price: $12.49
Price in other shops: $19.95
Book store. Illustrated catalog of books on different categories