Amir and Hassan have been best friends since they were born, and on the surface, they are similar. Both boys are natives of Afghanistan and live with their widowed fathers. But this is where the similarities end. Amir, the narrator of the story, was born into a privileged Pashtun family and given every opportunity a boy can imagine. Hassan, however, is a Hazara, a race oppressed by the Pashtuns.

Though the boys are encouraged to play together by their fathers, they become aware of their difference as they grow up. Amir’s friends pressure him to tease Hassan about his illiteracy and social status, though Hassan’s loyalty never wavers, even through a devastating and brutal event after a kite competition.

The book actually opens in San Francisco, where Amir and his father now live. Amir recounts his childhood with Hassan in a series of flashbacks throughout the book and wonders what happened to him after Amir and his father fled the country.

Khaled Hosseini, author of “The Kite Runner,” does such a good job developing the characters that the book reads more like a memoir than a work of fiction. Amir’s loneliness and shame make him so human that he becomes a real person to the reader by the end of the novel.

When Amir finally returns to the country to find what happened to Hassan, he realizes the country is not as he left it. Hosseini’s descriptions of historical events during the time period give the book depth, though some of the atrocities the people of Afghanistan suffered are appalling to read. The tyrannical rule of the Taliban, for example, is brutally described, particularly in one scene in which a couple is stoned to death in front of an entire stadium of people. Another disturbing scene shows a man selling his artificial in order to feed his children. But without such events, the book would not accurately depict the violence Afghanis have really lived through.

Though most of “The Kite Runner” is brilliant, the last third of the book was disappointing. Amir finally faces his old nemesis, and though the plot twists are unexpected, they play out more like a cheesy daytime soap opera than a literary masterpiece. Still, the overall themes of redemption and atonement are achieved in this well-written story.

I recommend “The Kite Runner” to anyone who has not read it, though I warn you that the conclusion, while somewhat uplifting, may not be all sunshine, flowers and happiness. Hosseini’s novel is sure to become a modern classic and is definitely worth reading.