Kites of Kabul

the Kites of Kabul ( The Kite Runner ) is the Romance first of the American of Afghan origin Khaled Hosseini, it is appeared in 2003 with the the United States.

It then was translated from American by Valerie Bourgeois and was published in France in 2005 by the editions Belfond.

Summary

Of Kabul to San Francisco, Years 1970 at our days, one tearing history of friendship and treason, with, in background, the tormented chronicle of a devastated country: the Afghanistan.

Although foster brothers, Amir the Pachtoune and Hassan the Hazara grew side-by-side in different worlds: the first is the son of a commercial rich person, the second is the son of their servant. Inseparable, bound by the same passion, the two boys dedicate a indéfectible friendship. But this bond will break forever. Whereas under its eyes Hassan undergoes terrible a ignominie, Amir remains petrified. Fear? Cowardice? Shame? Taken in a terrible confusion of the feelings, it will not outline a gesture to save his friend.

Summer 2001. Taken refuge for several years with the the United States, Amir has received a call of the Pakistan. There exists a means of repurchasing you, announces a voice on the telephone to him. But this average passes by a diving in the middle of the Afghanistan of the Talibans… and its clean last.

Characters of the novel

Amir - Pachtoune, well as it is necessary, the protagonist
Hassan - Hazara, the son of the servant of the family
Assef - hard of the vicinity of Amir to Kabul
Baba - the father of Amir, a business man
Ali - the father of Hassan, a servant will hazara
Rahim Khan - the partner of Baba in businesses in Afghanistan
Soraya - an Afghan woman which lives with Fremont in California, the wife of Amir
Sohrab - the son of Hassan, orphan in Afghanistan, called to remember Sohrab it.

Topics approached

Contrast between one gilded time (idealized by the author, seen through the eyes of a child?) and the upheavals undergone starting from the Russian occupation, the tribal fights which succeeded to him, the catch to be able of the Talibans… By sweeping thirty years of history of a country too ignored in Occident, the author throws a glance at the same time tenderized and critical on its country of origin: its habits, the religion and its fanaticism…
More universal topics, like the emigration, the relations father-wire, the friendship, the adoption and the redemption are also approached; without hardly forgetting the image which to us is returned ourselves, Western, and which gives to a novel, appeared two years after the events of the 11-September and the war of Afghanistan, a very particular dimension.

Quotation of the author

“ Known as Afghanistan and I immediately see drawing up a Cerf-volant in the blue sky of my memories ”

Price

the jury of the Literary prize RFI - Pilot of the world, chaired by Herve Bourges, designated as prize winner 2006 Khaled Hosseini for the Kites of Kabul , published in the Éditions Belfond.
on May 29th, 2006, the Kites of Kabul received the Grand Prix of the readers of It in the novel category.
the Kites of Kabul received the Prix of the booksellers of Quebec 2006, in the Roman category except Quebec.

Success and criticisms

the Kites of Kabul profited from an extraordinary word of mouth. Acclaimed by criticism, there remained many weeks at the head lists with the the United States where he became a deliver-worship, as in the majority of the twelve other countries where the novel was published.

“ To paint initially, on a decoration, tissue paper pretty. That of Afghanistan of the beginning of the year 1970 To place then, in this decoration, of the characters. To make live these characters, create others, make them of them evolve/move. To add a treason, a cowardice, a lie. To describe the departure, precipitate, of Hassan and her father. Then the exile, a few months later, of Amir and it his, right before the invasion. To install the characters in the United States then, to make believe that they remade their life, and to play with let us tons pastel. Then, suddenly, to turn over the tissue paper, to soak its brush in the brown one, gray, black. And to describe Afghanistan, ravaged, under the yoke of the talibans: lapidations, the mutilated constrained ones to sell to their prosthesis the children violated in the orphanages… To stick, on the tissue paper strings of the intrigue. Or the revelation on the true identity of Hassan. With its kites, Khaled Hosseini proposes to us a seizing digest of the recent history of its country. It draws up us the portrait of a man corroded by the remorse of a treason, and its formidable thirst for redemption. They is at the same time enthralling and upsetting. It's a pity that the writer missed sometimes of a little breath to make assemble even higher his kites in the literary sky. ” François Ménard.

Press review

Radio-Canada: The virtual library of “Present indicative”
Time - Lisbeth Koutchoumoff (August 20th, 2005): All left the kites. Khaled Hosseini, “Afghan-American” 35 years, led its life of intern to the the Cedars-Sinai Hospital of Los Angeles, when he saw a report of CNN on his country of origin. It was in full fury talibane and the bearded Masters stated a new edict: the prohibition of the kites. Information upsets to the subsoils.

the Point - Brigitte Hernandez (July 13rd, 2006): What a success! This novel resembles a life which would be a novel, and it was the case .

the Duty - Sebastien Barangé (9 & July 10th, 2005): One cannot resist, in spite of a a little agreed writing, with this descent in the abysses of the human feelings. There is the compost for a poignant scenario. The scenario writer Sam Mendes ( American Beauty ) works besides on the adaptation to the big screen of this history of childhood .

the literary Magazine - Jean Hurtin (February 2006): price RFI - Witness of the world crowns today a book which reveals with as much force than of sensitivity the daily newspaper of people and a country under the yoke of the talibans, as well as realities of the exile and the emigration in the United States.

the Sun - Didier Fessou (June 25th, 2005): This novel, the Kites of Kabul , does not leave indifferent. It is true. But the strings which tie the intrigue are so large and its outcome so foreseeable that removes credibility with the history.

Télérama - Pauline Perrignon (July 6th, 2005): Portrait of a man in prey with his past, this first novel of Khaled Hosseini says also the history of people. Following the example his character, the author left his country after the Soviet invasion. The table that it draws up some, very contrast between a idealized past and torments it present, offers a very beautiful testimony on this visceral bond which a man with his native soil maintains .

Internal bond

Kites of Kabul (film), Marc Forster (2007)

External bonds

Article on the site of Alternatives

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