The Kite Runner

One Word: Intense.

I do not even know where to start! The book was as excellent as A Thousand Splendid Suns, although I have yet decided which one is better. I like them both!

Khaled is such a good storyteller, he takes you to the old Aghanistan, a place both familiar and unfamiliar to us. Afghanistan has been very common to us; or rather, Afghanistan has stirred our curiosity only after the 9/11 attack. Before 9/11, we are not really that interested with Afghanistan or Afghans, and they live their own lives, conduct their own business without anyone giving them a second look. But now, Afghanistan is very common and such a novelty to us at the same time. It is a novelty in such a way that we do not even know before that they have their own war even prior to 9/11. We are not fully knowledgeable that Afghans have been fighting for peace for the longest time, only to be caught up in another war of the current generation. And these, Khaled has painted in this novel very intricately.

Reading The Kite Runner would make you realize how important honor, honesty, and loyalty were. You will also learn how precious second chances and self-redemption could be.

In the end, I think Hassan will always be my hero in this novel. Nobody can question his loyalty, and everybody will envy Amir for the unconditional love Hassan has given him.

It is only at the last page of this novel, after the very last paragraph that all of the emotions that evolved throughout the book came hitting my chest. It is only then that I felt everything. It is also only then that I cried.

And so I think everything that Hassan has endured for Amir were all worth it. And I also think that Sohrab is Amir's redemption. 

Thus, for Amir and Hassan, "a thousand times over".