The Kite Runner
Hosseini’s novel The Kite Runner begins in Afghanistan a few years before the Taliban took over and gives a vivid picture of life there, before and after the revolution. Amir, the narrator, is the son of a well-to-do business man, whose wife died when Amir was born. Their servants are Ali and his son Hassan. Hassan is Amir’s age, but his mother ran away soon after he was born. At that time, Afghanistan had two opposing ethnic groups, the Pashtums and the Hazaras. The Pashtums wanted the lower class Hazaras out of the country.
Hassan was a Hazaras, but it made no difference in his friendship and respect for Amir. Amir once asked him... "if he would chew dirt to prove his loyalty to me?" Hassan was more than willing, and this bothered Amir the rest of his life, mainly because after they had won a kite flying contest, he failed to protect Hassan from a young Pashtum named Assif.
Assif enjoyed picking on Amir and Hassan, and he idealized what he had read about Hitler. He believed that Afghanistan should get rid of the "dirty Hazaras", just as Hitler got rid of the Jews. After the Taliban took over, Assif received a high position and was able to exercise his own form of ethnic cleansing.
But Assif was not the only antagonist in the story. Amir, himself a Muslim, found it difficult to redeem his treatment of Hassan. Amir and his father moved to America to escape the Taliban revolution. But what had happened to Hassan and his family drew Amir back years later. He found no traces of childhood memories. Worse yet, he learned the truth about his relationship with Hassan.
Hosseini’s The Kite Runner is dedicated partially to the children of Afghanistan, many of whom are homeless, but "have little childhood." The book was published in 2003.