Book Maven: "The Kite Runner"

I recently had the pleasure to read "The Kite Runner" by Khaled Hosseini after it had been on the bookshelf for months. I found that this was an incredible story that is at its heart a story about friendship, betrayal, and possibly redemption in the mid 1970s Afghanistan. Two boys are connected by the loss of a mother but cannot be any further apart. One is Sunni and the other is Shi'a. One comes from wealthy Persian family, the other comes from a poor Pashtun family. One is educated and the other is illiterate. They live in the same household in an employer and servant dynamic, but also as family. The boys are thrown together by the loss of their mothers, and find a common interest in kite fighting. Hosseini offers elegant writing and excruciatingly poignant passages using the backdrop of a culture and geography that has relevance to a part of the world that effects us here. Yet, the lessons the central character learns could be learned anywhere where there are differences in class, religion, education, and culture.

This is a wonderful book, check it out.