The Kite Runner, by Khaled Hosseini, is a gripping tale of betrayal, guilt and redemption. The story follows two childhood best friends, Amir and Hassan growing up in Afganistan. While they have grown together; Hassan is a lot more loyal and caring than Amir. This leads Amir to great disloyalty to Hassan, which will forever haunt his life. This novel is fast-paced and rarely ever boring. After Amir abandons Hassan and moves to America in order to stay safe, he begins to feel more and more guilty. This guilt drives Amir to go against all odds and travel back to Afganistan to right his wrongs. As readers, we watch as Amir grows and matures as a person, facing his mistakes and fears. This is shown when Amir recognises that “It may be unfair, but what happens in a few days, sometimes even a single day, can change the course of a whole lifetime.” Hosseini used clear and powerful descriptions that really took me into the scenes.  As someone who is used to easy reading and love stories, this novel was a big change for me. It’s the kind of book that made me reevaluate my values, how I treat my friends and my ‘white privilege’ 21st century way of life. If you’re like me and have always been blessed to live in a country where you’ve never experienced the brutality and terror of warfare firsthand, this book serves as a reminder of how lucky you truly are.  In all honesty, The Kite Runner is disturbing and haunting. For this reason I can’t see myself rereading it, however, I am glad that I did read it once because it taught me some valuable lessons.
This novel was of relevance to me because