I started the book “The Kite Runner” by Khaled Hosseini yesterday, and I am completely fascinated and in love with it. The book follows the protagonist Amir, who is the son of a wealthy Kabul (The capital of Afghanistan) merchant. He grows up together with his servant´s son, Hassan, who is a Hazara, a large Afghan ethnicity. Hazaras have been looked down on, and treated like less, by their fellow afghans for centuries, but nonetheless, Amir shares a deep connection with his friend. Until one day, one small, fateful choice he makes changes their relationship and his life forever. After the Russian´s invasion in his country, Amir and his father flee through Pakistan to America, the country of hope and new beginnings. He starts a new life there, and seems to have forgotten all about his past. Until one day, many years later, he is forced to travel back to the country he left behind many decades ago, and confront what he should have faced a long time ago, seeing his changed country under the Taliban´s power.
” – nothing left for the children.”
“We’re hungry but we’re not savages! He is a guest! What was I supposed to do?” He said in a strained voice.
” – to find something tomorrow.” She sounded near tears.”What do I feed – ”
I tiptoed away. I understood now why the boys hadn’t paid any attention to the watch. They hadn’t been staring at the watch at all. They ´d been staring at my food.
This was a glimpse of the conversation Amir heard when he returned to Afghanistan and stayed over at his driver´s house for a night. He had had a beautiful meal the day before, and had noticed three little boys staring at his watch while he was eating. He wanted to thank his host and gave it as a present to the sad-looking kids. After hearing this, he now realised that the watch is the last thing they wanted. I think this passage was very interesting, because it shows what the author teaches the readers all the way through the book: the Afghan culture, and how being polite and respectful is worth more than anything else. Even in the worst possible case, when you struggle to find enough food to serve your children, not even then would they reject a stranger at their door. Amir realises when he goes back that the life he lead as a kid under his father´s wealth was never the life of all Afghans, and he is even more determined to repair at least a small peace of the pain he caused long ago. The whole book is an extraordinary insight to life on the other side of the world, with a beautifully written plot, it is a perfect eye-opening story to the terror experienced by a whole nation everyday.