In Search of Deliverance | A Review of Khaled Hosseini's "The Kite Runner"

The search for redemption is something that arguably defines the human experience. We are constantly seeking opportunities for self-renewal, whether that be in relationships, work, health, or spirituality. This journey of striving to better ourselves follows a long and winding road, and we often find ourselves taking two steps back for every one step forward. Nevertheless what truly matters is that we keep pressing forward, by confronting our pasts without letting them define our futures.

This redemptive quest is perhaps best illustrated in Khaled Hosseini’s The Kite Runner. The book follows the fictional story of a man named Amir, beginning with his boyhood in pre-Soviet Kabul, Afghanistan. Amir lives a relatively comfortable life free of worries until one day his world comes crashing down in a series of events that ultimately lead to deceit and betrayal. Shortly after the Soviet invasion begins, Amir is given a chance to flee from the people and places that will haunt him for years to come. 

Amir’s retreat from Afghanistan lands him in the California Bay Area, where he struggles to suppress memories from the past while working to build a new future in America. Ultimately he finds himself on an inevitable path to confront the tragedies of his childhood and, in doing so, free himself from decades of unspoken guilt and shame. 

Although fictional, Amir’s story at times reads like a memoir, and in this way his search for redemption becomes all the more compelling. Amir is occasionally disappointing as a main character, revealing his numerous flaws throughout the course of his journey. It is easy to resent him, and yet want to root for him at the same time, as you witness the complexity of humanity in his actions throughout the book.

The Kite Runner is by no means a lighthearted read. At times the book can feel quite heavy, dealing with a number of sensitive topics and themes. It can be difficult learn of the tragedies that plague the life of Amir and those closest to him, but what is perhaps more disheartening is the realization that the conditions described by Hosseini in the book are not only true of Afghanistan in the 90s and early 2000s, but also the Afghanistan of today following the haphazard U.S. military withdrawal of the country in 2021. To know that many of the horrific situations described in the book are still close to reality several decades later is quite saddening, and in some ways the broader socio-political commentary found in The Kite Runner carries even greater weight today than in the era of its original publication. 

Because of this, despite the contentment found in Amir’s redemptive journey, modern readers are somewhat left with a feeling of dissatisfaction, knowing that Afghanistan may never be redeemed to what it once was, as the global community gradually turns its back on human suffering in yet another region of the world. Perhaps unintentionally, The Kite Runner now serves as a powerful reminder of our collective failures, and urges us to reconcile with this part of our shared past.