Once in a while you encounter a book that is playing with the strings of your heart, full of warm, believable characters and is also telling a magnificent story. The Kite Runner by Khaled Hosseini falls into that category.

It is a first-person narrative by Amir, the son of a wealthy man in Afghanistan in the 70s. His mother had died while giving birth to him, so he lives with his father and has befriended Hassan, the son of their servant. Amir is a Pashtun, namely one of the ruling ethnic groups in Afghanistan while Hassan and his father are Hazaras, one of the scorned ethnic groups. Although they do not have any issues with this, it is a discrimination which has been growing.

Hassan's mother has run away when he was a baby. The two boys have established a deep friendship, despite all prejudices in the society. Their prime hobby is to fight kites and to "run" kites. Hassan is very good in running kites, namely he can run and find a downed kite and can claim ownership.

The story continues over the next 30 years of Afghanistan as the country goes through an enormous transformation as the different ethnic factions and finally the Taliban take government. It is a moving story of friendship, prejudices, cowardice, trust and betrayal; whereas you see a country being dismantled in the background.

This author is certainly going to my favorites list and it looks like he already has two more critically-acclaimed books published after this debut.