Eli Bendersky's website The book is written in an autobiographic manner, as told by Amir - an Afgan American, who was born and lived his first 18 years in Kabul, and later moved with his father to San Francisco. Amir describes his childhood, and in particular the complex relationship with his servant / friend Hassan, a boy of similar age from a lower caste. Something happens (I don't want to spoil...) that leaves a deep scar in the conscience of Amir, and much of the later part of the book the hope to amend this scar drives him.
The language this book is written in is simple and wonderful. Wonderful in its simplicity, I'd say. Wonderful because seeming simplicity is used to convey complex ideas and convictions, creating a highly believable story. The characters are so well built and the descriptions are so perfectly structured that it is very hard to not fall into Hosseini's narration thinking it really is a memoir.
"The kite runner" is a very sad book. It describes the difficult lives of people in Afganistan, especially in modern days, under the Taliban rule (before the American attack). A glimpse is provided into the lives of people whom the Western world marks as enemies, showing that as always, the reality is much more complex than what the press shows. The fate of Hassan is tragic, doubly so because of his being the character readers will, without doubt, love the most. I actually yearned for a happy end, which is untypical for me, and the moment Amir rushed into the bathroom in that hotel in Islamabad I found myself with the eyes on the ceiling, thinking "no more, please, just let it end well".
My only criticism of this book would be that some of the plot twists are a bit unnatural, mostly the one with Assef in the end. But I guess this can be forgiven to Hosseini, who produced this masterpiece as his first novel.