BEGIN:VCALENDAR PRODID:-//Meetup Inc//RemoteApi//EN VERSION:2.0 METHOD:PUBLISH CALSCALE:GREGORIAN X-ORIGINAL-URL:http://bookclub.meetup.com/704/calendar/7223054/ical/THE+KIT E+RUNNER+by+Khaled+Hosseini/ X-WR-CALNAME:Events - THE KITE RUNNER by Khaled Hosseini BEGIN:VEVENT SUMMARY:THE KITE RUNNER by Khaled Hosseini DESCRIPTION:Book Club Meetups > Hampton Roads Book Club\n\nThe Kite Runner\ nby Khaled Hosseini\n\nList Price: $14.00\nPages: 384\nFormat: Paperback\nI SBN: 1594480001\nPublisher: Riverhead\n\n\nEditorial Reviews\nAmazon.com\nI n his debut novel\, The Kite Runner\, Khaled Hosseini accomplishes what ver y few contemporary novelists are able to do. He manages to provide an educa tional and eye-opening account of a country's political turmoil--in this ca se\, Afghanistan--while also developing characters whose heartbreaking stru ggles and emotional triumphs resonate with readers long after the last page has been turned over. And he does this on his first try.\n\nThe Kite Runne r follows the story of Amir\, the privileged son of a wealthy businessman i n Kabul\, and Hassan\, the son of Amir's father's servant. As children in t he relatively stable Afghanistan of the early 1970s\, the boys are insepara ble. They spend idyllic days running kites and telling stories of mystical places and powerful warriors until an unspeakable event changes the nature of their relationship forever\, and eventually cements their bond in ways n either boy could have ever predicted. Even after Amir and his father flee t o America\, Amir remains haunted by his cowardly actions and disloyalty. In part\, it is these demons and the sometimes impossible quest for forgivene ss that bring him back to his war-torn native land after it comes under Tal iban rule. ("...I wondered if that was how forgiveness budded\, not with th e fanfare of epiphany\, but with pain gathering its things\, packing up\, a nd slipping away unannounced in the middle of the night.")\n\nSome of the p lot's turns and twists may be somewhat implausible\, but Hosseini has creat ed characters that seem so real that one almost forgets that The Kite Runne r is a novel and not a memoir. At a time when Afghanistan has been thrust i nto the forefront of America's collective consciousness ("people sipping la ttes at Starbucks were talking about the battle for Kunduz")\, Hosseini off ers an honest\, sometimes tragic\, sometimes funny\, but always heartfelt v iew of a fascinating land. Perhaps the only true flaw in this extraordinary novel is that it ends all too soon. --Gisele Toueg --This text refers to t he Hardcover edition.\n\nFrom Publishers Weekly\nHosseini's stunning debut novel starts as an eloquent Afghan version of the American immigrant experi ence in the late 20th century\, but betrayal and redemption come to the for efront when the narrator\, a writer\, returns to his ravaged homeland to re scue the son of his childhood friend after the boy's parents are shot durin g the Taliban takeover in the mid '90s. Amir\, the son of a well-to-do Kabu l merchant\, is the first-person narrator\, who marries\, moves to Californ ia and becomes a successful novelist. But he remains haunted by a childhood incident in which he betrayed the trust of his best friend\, a Hazara boy named Hassan\, who receives a brutal beating from some local bullies. After establishing himself in America\, Amir learns that the Taliban have murder ed Hassan and his wife\, raising questions about the fate of his son\, Sohr ab. Spurred on by childhood guilt\, Amir makes the difficult journey to Kab ul\, only to learn the boy has been enslaved by a former childhood bully wh o has become a prominent Taliban official. The price Amir must pay to recov er the boy is just one of several brilliant\, startling plot twists that ma ke this book memorable both as a political chronicle and a deeply personal tale about how childhood choices affect our adult lives. The character stud ies alone would make this a noteworthy debut\, from the portrait of the sen sitive\, insecure Amir to the multilayered development of his father\, Baba \, whose sacrifices and scandalous behavior are fully revealed only when Am ir returns to Afghanistan and learns the true nature of his relationship to Hassan. Add an incisive\, perceptive examination of recent Afghan history and its ramifications in both America and the Middle East\, and the result is a complete work of literature that succeeds in exploring the culture of a previously obscure nation that has become a pivot point in the global pol itics of the new millennium.\n\nVirginia Beach\, VA 23462 - USA\n\nThursda y\, April 10 at 6:30 PM\n\nPhoto: http://photos4.meetupstatic.com/photos/ev ent/b/d/1/7/event_2988407.jpeg\n\nAttending: 21\n\nDetails: http://bookclub .meetup.com/704/calendar/7223054/ LAST-MODIFIED:20080412T224047Z UID:event_7223054@meetup.com CLASS:PUBLIC CREATED:20080129T213501Z DTSTAMP:20080906T013650Z DTSTART:20080410T223000Z DTEND:20080411T003000Z GEO:36.84;-76.15 LOCATION:Barnes and Noble - 4485 Virginia Beach Blvd\, Across from Pembrok e Mall - Virginia Beach\, VA 23462 - USA URL:http://bookclub.meetup.com/704/calendar/7223054/ END:VEVENT END:VCALENDAR