The Kite Runner

Over the holidays I finished reading "The Kite Runner" by Khaled Hosseini. It was loaned to me by a friend. My mother-in-law has read it too, so I guess it must be popular. It's the story of Amir, who grows up in Kabul, Afghanistan, as the son of a wealthy businessman, immigrates to the US with his father, and then eventually returns to his homeland to rescue the son of his childhood friend after the boy's parents are shot during the Taliban takeover. The story is quite dark and some of the plot twists are a bit too telegraphed, but all-in-all I enjoyed it. The book's name refers to the kite battles that kids have. They coat their kite strings with ground glass to make them razor sharp and then compete to have the last kite flying with its string still attached. A kite runner is the person who chases down a kite after it is liberated from it's string. Whoever runs it down gets to keep it.