Khaled Hosseini was born March 4, 1965, in Kabul Afghanistan, the oldest of five children. His father worked for the Afghan Foreign Ministry, and his mother taught Persian literature and history in an Afghan high school. The family moved around, to Tehran, and then to Paris at the time of the Soviet invasion of Afghanistan …
“The book said that my people had killed the Hazaras, driven them from their lands, burned their homes, and sold their women.” Chpt. 2, p. 8.In childhood, Amir begins to learn of the division between him and Hassan by reading about it in a history book, for no one speaks of why the Hazara servants …
Friendship The main characters, Amir and Hassan, grow up as inseparable playmates, despite their difference in caste, even as Baba and Ali had done a generation before. Amir is the son of Baba, wealthy and respected business leader in Kabul, while Hassan is the son of their servant, Ali. Amirs mother dies at his …
Pomegranate Tree, The Lake, the Wall of Ailing Corn The pomegranate tree on the hill with the nearby cemetery is an important landmark for Hassan and Amir as they are growing up. They can see out over Kabul there and gain perspective, escaping the smaller social world. It is a place beyond trouble where …
Sofia Akrami Sofia Akrami is Amir’s mother who died in childbirth. She was a descendent of the royal family, a beautiful and virtuous woman who taught Farsi literature at the university in Kabul. Ali Ali is Baba’s kind and religious Hazara servant, who grew up with him as a companion, as Hassan and Amir …
Summary of Chapter Twenty-Three Amir comes in and out of consciousness, hearing his nurse Aisha speak to him. Everything hurts. He has pain at his side where his ribs were broken. There is something wrong with his mouth where his teeth were knocked out. He hallucinates, but he sees Farid and Sohrab by his …
Summary of Chapter Eighteen Amir leaves Rahim Khan and walks the streets trying to reorient himself to his life. He thinks of all the past clues about Baba’s attentions to Hassan. He wonders how Baba, so committed to the truth, could have lied to him. When you tell a lie, Baba had said, it …
Summary of Chapter Thirteen The engagement ceremony takes place. The lovers forgo the customary engagement period because of Baba’s health. Baba spends his life savings on the wedding, which is described in detail, with three hundred guests, and the bride and groom in green, the color of Islam. The men dance the spinning attan …
Summary of Chapter Eight For a week, Amir hardly sees Hassan. Hassan does his chores but stays out of sight. Amir asks Ali where he is, and Ali says he sleeps all the time. Ali asks Amir if something happened after the kite tournament. Hassan came home bloodied and said he had been in …
Summary of Chapter Three Amir describes his father as a forceful man who commands respect and attention. In the 1960s his father had designed and built an orphanage himself in Kabul. As a boy, Amir proudly attended the opening of the orphanage when his father made a speech. Despite the doubts of others, the enterprising …
