The Kite Runner

I've just finished reading The Kite Runner by Khaled Hosseini. I didn't really know what to expect when I started this book, other than the glowing reviews I heard from people who had previously read it. I knew it came out as a film earlier this year or last, but I'd had no interest in seeing it as it didn't seem like 'my kind of thing'. Well, after reading this novel, my eyes are truely opened to a whole history and culture I knew notihng about.

The story tells the tale of a boy from a wealthy family growing up in Afghanistan, his Hazara best friend and servant, and how life changes as the monarchy is overthrown, and the country is torn beyond recognition by the Taliban.

I won't go into detail about the plot as it's best left to be discovered as you read, but sufficed to say that it's rare a book can bring you to tears... and this did. Whether it's the knowledge that although the story may be fiction, it's closer to the truth than the reader may want to believe, or that anyone should ever have to live through such suffering and pain, it puts not only your own priviledged and excessive life into perspective as it highlights the plight of a country that a lot of people see as the undeserved enemy thanks to a violent and extremist power.

Probably one of the best books I've read since Mitch Albom.