Everand Logo

Welcome to Everand!

  • Discover millions of ebooks, audiobooks, and so much more with a free trial

    Only $11.99/month after trial. Cancel anytime.

    The Kite Runner
    The Kite Runner
    The Kite Runner
    Audiobook (abridged)6 hours

    The Kite Runner

    Written by Khaled Hosseini

    Narrated by Khaled Hosseini

    4.5/5

    ()

    About this audiobook

    A Stunning Novel of Hope and Redemption

    Taking us from Afghanistan in the final days of the monarchy to the present, The Kite Runner is the unforgettable and beautifully told story of the friendship between two boys growing up in Kabul. Raised in the same household and sharing the same wet nurse, Amir and Hassan grow up in different worlds: Amir is the son of a prominent and wealthy man, while Hassan, the son of Amir's father's servant, is a Hazara -- a shunned ethnic minority. Their intertwined lives, and their fates, reflect the eventual tragedy of the world around them. When Amir and his father flee the country for a new life in California, Amir thinks that he has escaped his past. And yet he cannot leave the memory of Hassan behind him.

    The Kite Runner is a novel about friendship and betrayal, and about the price of loyalty. It is about the bonds between fathers and sons, and the power of fathers over sons -- their love, their sacrifices, and their lies. Written against a backdrop of history that has not been told in fiction before, The Kite Runner describes the rich culture and beauty of a land in the process of being destroyed. But through the devastation, Khaled Hosseini offers hope: through the novel's faith in the power of reading and storytelling, and in the possibilities he shows us for redemption.
    LanguageEnglish
    PublisherSimon & Schuster Audio
    Release dateJun 1, 2003
    ISBN9780743564496
    The Kite Runner
    Author

    Khaled Hosseini

    Khaled Hosseini was born in Kabul, Afghanistan, and moved to the United States in 1980. His first novel, The Kite Runner, was an international bestseller, published in forty countries. In 2006 he was named a U.S. envoy to UNHCR, The United Nations Refugee Agency. He lives in northern California.

    More audiobooks from Khaled Hosseini

    Related to The Kite Runner

    Related audiobooks

    Historical Fiction For You

    View More
    View More

    Related podcast episodes

    Related articles

    • Article

      Between Innocence And Experience

      Jun 7, 2019

      At the centre of Poomani's novel, Heat, is Chidambaram, a boy who, in an act of daring and planning beyond his years, strikes down his elder brother's killer, Vadakkuraan. A powerful land-grabber, Vadakkuraan is always surrounded by his own armed men

      1 min read

    • Article

      The 40 Greatest Books To Read Before You Die

      Apr 25, 2021

      Books, books, books. They will increase your lifespan, lower your stress and boost your intelligence. They will give you fuller, thicker hair. Whatever the breathless claims about reading, one thing is certain: losing yourself in a great novel is one

      14 min read

    • Article

      Hans-my-hedgehog

      Aug 4, 2021

      Hans-my-hedgehog
      5 min read

    • Article

      Lucky Were the Bodies

      May 3, 2022

      Lucky Were the Bodies
      8 min read

    • Article

      You Can’t Keep A Good Woman Down

      Apr 20, 2022

      You Can’t Keep A Good Woman Down
      8 min read

    • Article

      3 Things For The Future

      Nov 6, 2017

      3 Things For The Future
      3 min read

    • Article

      Great Hymns Abide With Me

      Jan 10, 2024

      I was chatting to my Iranian fishmonger the other day about the oral tradition in poetry. His grandfather had lived in a small village, with no electricity or running water, and only dust roads. Being one of the only literate people in the community,

      3 min read

    • Article

      The Griffin

      Nov 4, 2020

      The Griffin
      3 min read

    • Article

      Getaway Driver

      Feb 10, 2022

      Getaway Driver
      11 min read

    • Article

      The Last Waylon Party

      Jan 18, 2019

      The Last Waylon Party
      14 min read

    • Article

      My Father’s House

      Apr 25, 2023

      My Father’s House
      6 min read

    • Article

      The Magic Book

      May 3, 2023

      The Magic Book
      5 min read

    • Article

      The Art of Fiction No. 245

      Dec 15, 2019

      The Art of Fiction No. 245
      42 min read

    • Article

      The Left Behind

      Sep 13, 2017

      The Left Behind
      15 min read

    • Article

      Annabel’s Date With Destiny

      Nov 4, 2020

      ONE DAY, I HEADED UP into the hills to work a stretch of bush that ran alongside the Hangaroa River. I’d been eyeing it up for a few months, as it looked like a nice, easy place to run a few traps. I was busy laying out my traps when I heard the clip

      2 min read

    • Article

      The World of Bibhutibhushan

      Feb 1, 2023

      The World of Bibhutibhushan
      14 min read

    • Article

      The Herd word

      Jan 7, 2020

      The Herd word
      17 min read

    • Article

      Wrinkles In Time

      Aug 9, 2020

      Wrinkles In Time
      17 min read

    • Article

      Our Lady Of The Rockies

      Aug 7, 2023

      Our Lady Of The Rockies
      13 min read

    • Article

      Khadim Ali

      Aug 23, 2017

      Khadim Ali
      8 min read

    • Article

      Planof Action

      Oct 5, 2021

      Planof Action
      6 min read

    • Article

      Black Stump Hotel, Merriwagga

      Nov 14, 2018

      Black Stump Hotel, Merriwagga
      6 min read

    Related categories

    Reviews for The Kite Runner

    4.5/5

    711 ratings582 reviews

    What did you think?

    Tap to rate

    Review must be at least 10 words

    • 5/5
      "For you a thousand times over". The infamous line that was given life from this novel deserves every reference it receives. Few times have I laughed, cried, and raged at a novel as I have toward this one. From the first page, the reader is sucked into the world of Amir and Hassan. This world is both the physical one they share in Afghanistan along with the one formed through their brotherhood. This is a story of betrayal, redemption, loyalty, tradition, and most deeply of all, of love. This love is of all types: romantic, familial, and so much more. A truly beautiful novel that paints a picture of a beautifully terrible world, it is no surprise I finished all 400 pages in 5 short hours, and if given the chance, I would gladly forget it all just to be able to go on the journey for the first time once more.

      1 person found this helpful

    • 5/5
      Second time listening to this and the tears came again.
    • 5/5
      I don't read as much adult fiction anymore, but I was glad to find this one. The first couple of chapters felt slow and took a bit of time to sort the character names out. I recommended the book to several people and they never made past those chapters but once I did I was hooked. The characters were heartfelt and genuine and their relationships captivating. Perhaps it was the insight into the Afghan culture that made it so much more compelling. He started to lose me when Rahim narrates an entire chapter and I felt it would end in storybook fashion (which almost led me to give it 4 stars), but not so. The ending was beautiful. Cheers for Khaled.
    • 5/5
      This book was the first page turner I had read in a while. I can't seem to learn history/current events without a good story, and the Kite Runner fulfilled all the requirements for me.
    • 3/5
      A very refreshing read. Very different from mainstream novels, and the setting, part Afghanistan, part US and pakistan gives a unique reading experience. A very interesting plot, and nicely executed. An awesome read. Just that the story drags a bit at few places... otherwise perfect
    • 5/5
      Loved it. If you read one book this year, this should be the one.
    • 4/5
      After reading first 7 chapters I would have given this book 6 stars :) However, the remaining chapters did not engage me as much. Overall a good book, maybe just a little bit too long. I am sure of one thing though: every bit of the news about Afghanistan will be much more touching from now on as this book made me feel a strange connection to the country and its people...
    • 4/5
      Good, definitely - but not great.The narrative seems to centre around one pivotal event (to avoid spoiling the plot entirely I will only say that it is something unpleasant that happens to Hassan) - the early part of the novel leads up to it and the rest tapers away from it, documenting the consequences of Amir's response to it. This doesn't necessarily ruin the story, but there was a good chunk during the middle of the book where I found myself repeatedly wondering whether anything else at all was actually going to happen.It is also striking that all the main characters in the story are male, which is perhaps not surprising because what this book is all about is relationships between fathers and sons.Overall, probably worth reading.
    • 4/5
      I miss out on most fiction best-sellers because I don't ever think to buy them. I would rather spend money aquiring a nice thick non-fiction book. My of my fiction comes to me through lost and found at work or loans from friends.This one has been sitting at home for a few months, and I picked it up to take on a quick trip with me.Stayed up at night until I finished reading it.The book is wonderful in its depiction of a life in Afghanistan that I would never know. It is a sometimes brutal read. The last plot twist....I really thought to myself "How much more can I take?" -- both of the book and the continual gut punches it throws out.But the ending saved the book for me and I would recommend it to others to read. (Except that I may be the last person on Earth not to have read it!)
    • 3/5
      Beautifully written in parts but the last few chapters were too difficult to stomach. Whatever happened to reality, and multi-dimensional characters?
    • 3/5
      Fascinating story of an Afghan immigrant who sacrifices much in order to put right an old wrong. A bit sprawling, and at times graphic, but still touching.
    • 5/5
      A five star book, what more can I say. I was taken by the colours and descriptions in the book. The simple kite flying
    • 5/5
      A captivating somewhat realistic contemporary story of a loyal childhood friend and extended family torn apart by war/ ego/ status/ location and strives to resolve with virtuous effort to pay past debts though supporting a child.
    • 5/5
      A book that will throw you curve balls in every chapter. A good read for the average reader.
    • 5/5
      When I was a child, my next-door neighbours were from Afghanistan. The father of the family was your ideal neighbour; he would greet my mother and offer favours when needed. They had a boy who went to my school and we ended up in some of the same classes. He was your typical American joke-cracking-but-never-wanting-to-get-into-real-trouble boy. I can't remember if they or we moved out of our neighbourhood first. I just remember that immediately after September 11, I felt the tremendous need to find my classmate online and write him an e-mail saying that I remembered his family's kindness and I apologised in advance for whatever retaliatory discrimination he or his family might face in the coming months. Though he never answered, America certainly didn't fall short of my expectations on the matter. But in the decade that followed of hearing "Kabul" and "Taliban" and "Bin Laden" and "Kandahar" on the news, I slowly forgot about that family, and Afghanistan became, like I'm sure it is to many other Americans, a nation of blank faces overrun by extremists.I don't know whether this book is a great work of literature. I do know that it reminded me of the real Afghan people I once knew. And I think that anybody out there, like me, who has known those people but forgotten, or anyone who has not had the privilege of knowing people like that, needs to hear this story, and that the Afghan people, and not the world media and governments, need to have the opportunity to tell their own stories. This is a book that offers that to the world.The writing style is both simple and eloquent. Figurative language is not wasted on every sentence to show off the author's skill, but used where it is needed to show off the story's heart. The plot is almost Dickensian in its coincidences, and yet even when I suspect that the drama is there just as a tear-jerking device, I know that the world will be a better place for those tears being jerked. I don't personally agree with the book's theme that "there is a way to be good again" that derives from earning forgiveness for one's own actions, but I appreciate having such a personal insight into the mind of someone who thinks that way. If there is an all-time greatness to the book, it comes perhaps not so much from within the writing, but from the fact of the book itself: that voices like this are not heard from enough. A book is a conversation in which one person agrees to listen for hours. I feel grateful to have had this opportunity to listen.
    • 5/5
      I may be the last person in the U. S. to read The Kite Runner. I read A Thousand Splendid Suns a few years ago and found it so sad I couldn't face Kite Runner but now time has passed and my f2f book club is reading it this month so I bit the bullet. It certainly isn't a happy story, and I did shed a few tears, but I found it a lot less difficult that A Thousand Splendid Suns. The book follows main character, a boy named Amir, from his childhood in Kabul in the 1970's to the early 2000's. He is born in Kabul, the son of a weathy Pashtun businessman during the time that Afghanistan is still a monarchy. His best friend, Hassan, is the son of the family servant and a Hazara. Their friendship is the underlying force of the story.Amir's mother died giving birth to him. He is raised by his strong, principled father who is rather disappointed in his timid, passive son who wants to be a writer. The father may also blame him subconsciously for the mother's death. Hassan, however, is much braver and fights Amir's battles for him. Adding to the self-doubts caused by his father's disapproval and his own failure to stand up for himself, Amir's actions when he witnesses an unspeakably violent event change the course of his and Hassan's lives.The personal stories of the characters takes place against a backdrop of the recent history, and involves racial and class prejudice. bullying, coming of age, and evolving family relationships. It's an amazing book and I'm glad I finally had the courage to read it.
    • 3/5
      This book was definitely better than I expected. I had mainly heard taglines describing it as being about "The one event that changed both their lives forever..." but it wasn't about that at all. That was only a part of it. Really, this was about war, and also about the American immigrant experience. A very fascinating book. Overall, I think it was well-written. Downside: it felt very calculated, and every single thing of note came back in a more important role later in the book. It was too wrapped up in itself.
    • 4/5
      This is a largely uncritical review, but I found it to be a beautiful, haunting, powerful tale. The Kite Runner is about a young boy, Amir, growing up in a wealthy part of Kabul, Afghanistan, the only son of a popular entrepenuer, who betrays his best friend and later has a chance to redeem himself. As his father's best friend, Kahim, says, "There's a way to be good again." Amir grows up with Hassan, the Hazara servant boy whose father, Ali, grew up with Amir's father. Hassan's mother left as soon as he was born, and he endured taunts and bullying all his life, especially for being a Hazara, which I've never heard of before but I gather it's like being a Jew in Nazi Germany, only with no money or education. So maybe it's more like the black slaves? Anyway, Amir knows he's a coward, he wants to write stories, not fight back against the likes of local, half-German tough boy Assef, who idolises Hitler. He knows his father is disappointed in him, and is jealous when his dad ("Baba") shows affection and preferential treatment toward Hassan. Hassan is also the best kite runner in the city. The boys play a kite-flying game in winter; the strings are coated in tar and cut glass, and they deftly fly them so that their kite cuts the strings of other boys' kites. The winner is the last kite in the air, and extra kudos to you if you run down the last kite to be cut. Amir wins the kite flying tournament one year, and sends Hassan off after the last cut kite. Hassan, devoted and loyal to Amir, runs off, saying over his shoulder, "For you, a thousand times over." Winning the tournament means everything to Amir, for Baba will love him now. But Amir witnesses something horrible horrible horrible, and does nothing, says nothing. Even when he learns that Hassan knows he saw what happened, Amir does nothing. He chooses his father's attention and love over Hassan. Because Hassan's presence reminds Amir of what happened, he can't stand being around him anymore, and finds a way to get rid of both Hassan and Ali. Amir is a very interesting character. As a boy, aware of his own weaknesses, he is not very likeable, though as a literary character his personality is so well written, his first-person voice edged with a touch of snobby, upper-class arrogance. He is embarrassed by Hassan: while he likes to play with him, when Amir's other friends are around Hassan isn't invited to join in, and Amir never calls him his friend. When Amir is older, he knows that Hassan was the better person, the stronger and braver and kinder, more generous soul. But Amir is just a child, and one with high expectations of himself, let alone his father's. There were many things to love about this book. First of all, it wasn't set in the 50s!! It starts out in the 70s, when Amir is about 12, and follows him through to 2002, about a year after 9/11. It is very eye-opening in regards to Afghanistan, a country where, frankly, very few of us know much about. The Kite Runner reveals how relatively modern their lives were before the Russians entered the scene, and how the Taliban were welcomed at first because they got rid of the Russians. After that, Hosseini is very unforgiving towards the Taliban, and paints a very black picture of them. When Amir has to return from America to Afghanistan, the depictions of the Taliban executing adulterers and threatening people for cheering too loudly at sports events, is frightening. What happens to Amir when he encounters an old foe is even scarier. Yet this is not a morbid book. There is a vein of silver running all through it: hope. The book ends with hope, a small nugget of it, a private, personal hope, but important nonetheless. Hosseini shows the human side of Afghanistan, not the poppy-growing, fanatical side. He paints a picture of Kabul full of Mulberry and pomegranate trees, green grass and playing fields and parks, markets full of the spicy aroma of kabobs, and a tightly-knit community no less family-oriented than the Greeks or Italians. I learnt about some Afghan customs, I even learnt the meaning of some words, like Inshallah ("God willing", if my memory serves me correctly - I don't have the book with me). This is a sad tale, for what was lost and what was - and is - endured, but also a warm one, for the colourful characters, the solidarity, the determination. Ultimately a story of survival and redemption, The Kite Runner was thoroughly enjoyable, a quick, not particularly challenging read, but one that challenges our assumptions and prejudices
    • 3/5
      engrossing.
    • 4/5
      Wow. What a story. I hesitate to say I "liked" it. The evocative themes and emotional turmoil seem too deep for such a blas? phrase. Some of the plot development was a bit contrived, with recurring characters and coincidental encounters. It all fit together a bit too nicely at the end. However, that doesn't mean I didn't sob for Hassan's love and friendship and devotion again and again. A stunning portrayal of loyalty and a glimpse into the lives of those in Afghanistan in the past few decades. A very powerful read.
    • 5/5
      Absolutely fabulous read! Pulls at every emotion! I loved it!
    • 2/5
      This is the sort of book White America reads to feel wordly. Just like the spate of Native American pop fiction in the late eighties, this is overwhelmingly colonized literature, in that it pretends to reveal some aspect of the 'other' culture, but a closer inspection reveals that aside from the occasional tidbit, it is a western story, firmly ensconced in the western tradition. Even those tidbits Hosseini gives are of such a vague degree that to be impressed by them, one would have to have almost no knowledge of the history of Afghanistan, nor the cultural conflicts raging there between the shia and sunni Muslims. Of course, most Americans have no familiarity with either.Hosseini's story is thickly foreshadowed and wraps up so nicely in the end that it negates the ability of the text to produce anything interesting or surprising. Every coincidence that could happen, does happen. He attempts to wrangle in the reader's interest despite this, usually with dramatized violence. He is also fond of forcing tension by creating a small conflict between two characters and then having them agonize over it for years. This would not be problematic in itself, except that the conflict does not grow or change over time, leaving the characters' reactions petty and repetitive.He even creates a cliched 'white devil' character, a literal sociopath (and pedophile) as the symbol for the 'evils' of the Taliban. This contrasts oddly since book does not shy away from representing the simple inequalities and pointless conflicts which stem from Afghan tradition, itself. His indelicate inclusion of wealthy, beautiful, white power as the source of religious turmoil in the mid-east negates his hints that the conflicts are caused by small-mindedness.The sad part about this book is that it will allow white America both to feel sympathy with the mid-east conflict, and also to retain a sense of superiority over the Muslims and their 'backwards, classicist, warlike' ways. Even after all of that, they will not really have come to any understanding of the vast and vital economic concerns which have made the mid-east so important to the future of the world.It is unfortunate that nowhere amongst this book's artfully dramatized violence or its alternative praising and demonizing of the West is there the underlying sense of why this conflict is happening, of what put it all into place, and of why it will continue to drag us all down. The point where we could turn our sympathy into indignation or realization is simply absent.There is a meme on the internet showing a map of the world with the mid-east replaced by a sea-filled crater with the comment 'problem solved'. What this map fails to represent is that there is a reason the west keeps meddling in the affairs of the mid-east, and that every time we do, it creates another conflict. As long as we see the Taliban as faceless sociopaths, we can do nothing against them. We must recognize that normal people fall down these paths, and that everyone sees himself as being 'in the right'. So who is more right: a Westerner who bombs a child, or a Muslim who does?The point shouldn't be to separate the 'good Muslims' from the 'bad Muslims', because people aren't fundamentally good or bad. They are fundamentally people. Almost without exception, they are looking out for their future, their children, and their communities. Calling someone 'evil' merely means you have ceased to try understanding their point of view, and decided instead to merely hate for hatred's sake.This book isn't particularly insightful or well-written, but that is in no way remarkable from bestsellers. The problem is that Americans are going to use this book to justify their ignorance about the problems in the east. This book will make people feel better about themselves, instead of help them to think better about the world.
    • 5/5
      A book about a country so foreign I didn't really know where it was located before the war and a story tragically human. Superb.
    • 5/5
      It was an absolutely amazing book!!!! It really got me thinking about Afghanistan. I enjoyed sitting down and reading it. The book was well written and I enjoyed every minute of it. What a wonderful author.
    • 5/5
      This was a powerful book. Gripping would be a good way to describe it, since I was up until almost 3am finishing it last night. It was not always easy to take, with a few intense, disturbing scenes, but also with much tenderness and depth.

      My admiration for this book isn't completely unqualified. Occasionally I thought it strayed into melodrama, and I did get annoyed with the author's clumsy use of foreshadowing. He kept using devices such as "little did I know, this was the last time I would see him." That was overdone.

      But I am giving this book five stars because my complaints pale in comparison to all that I found praiseworthy. The story moved me, and I learned a lot about a country and a culture (Afghanistan), and how it has been destroyed from within and without. The characters felt real, and at times I had trouble believing they didn't exist somewhere out there in the world.

      I recommend this book to all.
    • 3/5
      I know that everyone loves this book, and I am probably incurring chastisement by saying this, but I was pretty disappointed with this book. I thought the writing was pretty basic, and that a lot of the plot was there just for shock value. I am glad to have learned even just a little bit about the history of Afghanistan (I really knew nothing), but all the hype surrounding this book left me expecting more from it.
    • 5/5
      With the war in Afghanistan, its all to easy to forget that not everyone in that country, or who come from there, are Taliban. Most are decent, innocent people who are struggling to get by. This is the story of a boy who grew up in Afghanistan, and then moved with his father to America. The boy is burdened with guilt for his lack of action in helping a friend. Its a book about the *real* Afghanistan, how it was and how it is now. It puts a human face on the people and depicts the human side of the country and its people - positive and negative. A sad and dark book, but in the end one which offers hope.
    • 5/5
      Here is a carefully and beautifully written story that pulls at your heart over the years of a young man's growth to manhood and to somehow find and prove his worth to himself. Afghanistan, a place I really know so little about other than for what is show on the limited news, is the base and the background---from a historical view of a childhood there, and then through the changes that take place as it all falls apart.
    • 5/5
      This is one of my all time favorites. It is beautifully written with parts which left my soul in pieces. The reader is left questioning thoughts, feelings, and motivations in all human behavior.
    • 5/5
      This was an amazing book. I love the way Khaled Hosseini writes. It was a page turner. It was also a heartwrenching story of the friendship of Amir and Hassan. I cannot wait until the movie comes out in November to see how it is handled in comparison to the book.