Fans of the Kite Runner can rest easy: Award-winning director Marc Forster’s cinematic version of Khaled Hosseini’s novel about friendship, family secrets, betrayal, war and redemption, soars as high as its source material.

The Kite Runner provides a fascinating insight into Afghan culture and ethnic variety, as well as the country’s recent historical background— from the arrival of the Soviets to the Taliban— before invasion by American forces.

The story manages to embrace a variety of topics such as children, conflict, tragedy, redemption, and epiphany, while not forgetting that it charmed millions of readers world-wide. It was right out of the headlines, had a huge audience of book clubs, included in must- reads lists, and captured a firm slot on the New York Times bestseller list.

The story is set in Kabul, Afghanistan, 1978. While the country faces a growing threat from Soviet-backed communists, the only worries best-friends Amir and Hassan face are the local bullies.

While Amir is a well-to-do Pashtun boy, Hassan is a Hazara and the son of Amir’s father’s servant. Amir is taunted about his friendship, with other boys suggesting Hassan is really only an ‘‘ugly pet’’, given that he was born hare-lipped. And while Hassan would gladly put his life on the line for his best mate, Amir is more reticent.

Their friendship is put to the test when Hassan is cornered by some hoodlums and physically assaulted and humiliated. Amir personally witnesses the incident but does nothing, leading to a falling out between the pair, which escalates to the point that Hassan and his father, leave the household.

Shortly afterwards, with the Soviet invasion imminent, Amir and his father move to America, but the boy cannot help feeling a sense of guilt and unfinished business in his homeland, something that will haunt him for decades. Whether Amir succumbs to his childhood guilt is what remains to be seen.

The film has already been released in several parts of America and Europe on Boxing Day, 26th December 2007, granting access to the press such as Toronto Star from Canada to mention that the movie adaptation of the Kite Runner ‘was so accomplished on its own terms it rendered the book redundant’.

By now, if you still have not managed to read the book, you should be in a frenzy to get your hands on it. If so, make a trip down to your nearest branch library before the books start flying off the shelves. Otherwise, you would just have to be reminded just how many pictures a well-chosen word is actually worth, when the movie is released in a few months time on our shores . Now, do not say we did not warn you!

Library Press Display: The Press, 22 Dec 07, New Zealand-The Press
Townsville Bulletin, 22 Dec 07, Australia-Hitting a high note
The Daily Telegraph,26 Dec 07, UK-A too tasteful flight of fancy