Customer Reviews
Ahmed - By: Ahmed, 18 Mar 2008 
Absolutely brilliant!!! Cant wait to get home & get back to this wonderfully written book. Have now bought the next book (A thousand splendid suns) by Khalid Hosseini as I can see I will enjoy reading this authors work.
Excellent read - By: Overthesea, 24 Feb 2008 I thoroughly enjoyed this book. It is an easy read & hard to put down. I found it thought provoking, showing an interesting side of life & values that probably escape a few of us!
Flimsy and very badly written... - By: bloodsimple, 23 Jan 2008 
What a disappointing book. Of course, you should ignore the hype, & Richard & Judy's marketing-led judgement. But this book actuallly has an interesting premise, a chance at an enjoyable story.
What goes wrong is simply the standard of the writing. The author reads like someone who is about ten years off being a decent author. His style is simplistic rather than simple, lacking depth or power. The whole story is told as one, great elongated narrative. It is devoid of peaks & troughs, the author unable to create genuine tension, or drama, even where the scene would appear to have it in spades.
The result is that, even when describing the excesses of the Taliban, or the seminal points in the character's life, the reader is simply left cold. No mean feat, but he manages to do this several times over. Major events are glossed over, & the whole book leaves the reader with no emotional connection to any character, no desire to find out what happens (though it's pretty predictable).
Why is this book popular? Well, it's fairly easy to read. And, erm, that's about it. You don't learn anything about Afghanistan that you couldn't find on CNN or Wikipedia pretty quickly. Maybe for some people that represents a searing insight, but for this reader, 300 pages ought to offer more than that.
Beautiful book , draws you in and makes you part of it - By: A. J. Sudworth, 18 Jan 2008 I usuallly read historical novels & sci-fi so this is a bit of a departure for me but well worth it. This is a story of friendship & redemption (but not in the obvious way..) set in the years before the Russian invasion of Afganistan & after the falll of the Taliban. The friendship of two boys (Amir & Hassan) is brought to life in the eraly part of the book & the under currents of the complex family realtionships that eventuallly give Amir the chance to correct what he regards as his cowardice.
I won't spoil the plot but the book by turns captures the innocence of childhood, how Amir finallly grows up & his determination not to let his friend down - even if it through Hassans son & not Hassan. The book vividly captures the Afghan lifestyle both before Russia & after the Taliban takeover, it is in one moment a beautifully descriptive book & then wham ! a very brutal story
This is not one to dip into - you'll get caught in the story & I defy you not to be moved
