After reading the book and exploring some of the histories of the area it covers, it is more likely that an exploration of some of the book’s central themes will be accurately interpreted. Such a book invites the reader into a world that may be completely unfamiliar, gives one a chance to understand more about the hopes and dreams of a people, and encourages one to learn more about the history that has shaped this world before allowing assumption and prejudice to reign.

This is the impression received when one reads a book such as The Kite Runner by Khaled Hosseini. Almost automatically, a new understanding seems to blossom in which the terrifying ‘other’ of foreign mystique is able to take on new dimensions as a human being equally confused, equally doing his best to discover his proper moral and ethical path in a world devoid of any clear lines. When this literature makes it into the hands of people who do not share this same culture, either because the passage of time has served to shift people’s perspectives or the crossing of borders has introduced new thoughts, the reader is able to gain a closer understanding of how others might see the world differently. This is often the case whether the author intends it or not, as he or she cannot help but reveal some of the fundamental concepts and assumptions that inform his or her work. Quality literature provides the world with the opportunity to see a single period in time from the perspective of a single individual as they attempt to come to grips with often universal truths.

Kite runner book