The Kite Runner By Khaled Hosseini

The Kite Runner opens with a man reminiscing about his childhood. A flashback occurs, and the man is discovered to be Amir, a boy from Kabul, Afghanistan. He begins to describe two figures from Kabul: his friend, Hassan, and his father, Baba. Amir explains that Hassan was a Hazara, a lower-class citizen. Hassan and his father serve as servants to Baba and Amir. Amir shows obvious respect for his father in his description of him; however, Baba says that Hassan always has to save Amir from the bullies. Baba shows more respect to Hassan, which angers Amir. Amir and Hassan hear of the death of the king. News of a republic forming came into relevance. The boys begin practicing kite-racing, a sport in which one person fly a kite then cut the string, and the other would try to catch the kite. Hassan was said to be the best at kite-racing. Hassan admits to Amir that he would do anything for Amir, which makes Amir uncomfortable; however, instead of vocalizing his discomfort, Amir ends the conversation.
His father was a diplomat in the Afghanistan government, and his mother taught high school in Kabul. The family was relocated to Paris in 1976, and could never return to Kabul because of the bloody communist invasion of the Soviet Union. The Kite Runner also takes place in Kabul, Afghanistan, and many of Khaled Hosseini's inspiration came from this fact (Biography). His idea for the novel came from him watching a news report on the news in 1999 that explained that the Taliban had banned the sport of kite-flying. After writing a short story in two boys' point of view, he decided to make the story into a novel. His passion for revealing the truth about the culture of Afghanistan fueled the creation of this novel, and he continues to write stories about Afghanistan today ('Kite Runner' Author On His Childhood, His Writing, And The Plight Of Afghan