The Kite Runner

The Kite Runner was one of the books I was going to take to Marrakech with me. But I finished the other book I was reading so picked this book up earlier this week. What a beautiful book, Khaled Hosseni is a wonderful story-teller and you just want to carry on reading to see what happens next. It's not often that you pick up a book that you just don't want to put down again until the end. All I want to do is curl up with a cup of tea, some chocolate and the book. I remember when I read Anna Karenina, it was exactly the same. For some reason I didn't think I'd enjoy the book, I didn't think I'd like a Russian literary masterpiece but how wrong I was. I wanted to cancel everything in my diary, work included, and just read. Books like this are just wonderful!

Back to The Kite Runner. I really enjoy books that, although fictional, weave in history with the tale so you learn something too. I think that's one of the reasons I enjoyed Midnight's Children so much, I actually learnt a lot about the partition of India and the creation of Pakistan through reading the book. The Kite Runner is a beautiful story of friendship and betrayal, the sticky father-son relationship, cowardice and courage. It's made me cry a few times already but thankfully not the blubbing sort that I did when I read Captain Corelli's Mandolin.

I also love books that embrace countries and cultures, where you read about peoples' lives once they've left their homeland and moved to the west (usually America or Britain), how they adapt, the things that bind them together, the strength and courage they display in their new lives. I guess my love of books like these is because it's my background also, two cultures, two lives, two worlds.