The Kite Runner really stuck with me because it’s a brutal reminder that once war comes, nobody is safe.
It doesn’t matter how rich, powerful, or secure you think you are; war doesn’t care.
It turns people into refugees overnight, tears families apart, and reduces years of hard work into nothing more than stories you tell yourself.
Imagine building a home with your own hands and hard-earned money, only to one day find strangers living in it. That kind of loss isn’t just about property; it’s about losing your sense of belonging.
It also features stories of people who stayed and those who left as refugees,
highlighting the different hardships they endured.
And the most heartbreaking aspect is that these stories aren’t just part of history.
They mirror the ongoing realities faced today.
What makes this book hit even harder is how it weaves those big truths about war into something deeply personal.
At its heart, it’s about Amir and Hassan. Hassan’s loyalty is pure and unwavering, but Amir’s insecurity and his desperate need for Baba’s approval push him to betray the one person who loved him most.
Those scenes hurt to read because they remind us how our weaknesses, like fear, jealousy, and silence, can destroy the people who least deserve it.
Then there’s Amir and Baba’s relationship, which is just as heartbreaking.
Amir spends his childhood feeling like he’ll never measure up, craving Baba’s approval, only to later learn that Baba himself was carrying secrets too heavy to share.
The revelation that Hassan was Amir’s half-brother completely changes how you see everything,
the distance between father and son, Baba’s quiet guilt, even the invisible lines drawn by class and ethnicity.
It’s betrayal layered on betrayal, of family, of trust, of truth itself.
The book also doesn’t shy away from the ugly realities of Afghanistan’s history: ethnic cleansing, the Shia-Sunni divide, and war fought in the name of religion. These aren’t just “political” issues; they’re human tragedies, and they leave scars that don’t just fade away with time.
By the end, I realised The Kite Runner isn’t just a story about Afghanistan.
It’s about what it means to be human, how war can take everything you thought was permanent, how betrayal never really leaves you, and how painful redemption can be, but also how necessary.
I closed the book with this ache in my chest, but also with the reminder that love, loyalty, and forgiveness, even when buried deep, are what keep us human.
Now, compared to A Thousand Splendid Suns,
I didn’t cry while reading The Kite Runner.
Both books overlap slightly (the orphanage with Zaman),
but they tell such different stories.
For me, the themes of motherhood and marriage in A Thousand Splendid Suns resonated so much louder, which is probably why I ended up favouring it.
So while The Kite Runner is a great read, powerful, moving, and unforgettable, it’s not quite a full 5-star for me. More like a solid 4.
The book is also available here :)
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