The Kite Runner

“Remember, Amir agha. There’s no monster, just a beautiful day.” How could I be such an open book to him when, half the time, I had no idea what was milling around in his head? I was the one who went to school, the one who could read, write. I was the smart one. Hassan couldn’t read a first-grade textbook but he’d read me plenty. That was a little

I wondered if that was how forgiveness budded, not with the fanfare of epiphany, but with pain gathering its things, packing up, and slipping away unannounced in the middle of the night.

That was the thing about kite flying: Your mind drifted with the kite.

that, I believe, is what true redemption is, Amir jan, when guilt leads to good.

parents. “When you kill a man, you steal a life,” Baba said. “You steal his wife’s right to a husband, rob his children of a father. When you tell a lie, you steal someone’s right to the truth.

classical ghazal by Ustad Sarahang.

Because the past claws its way out.

That was the thing with Hassan. He was so goddamn pure, you always felt like a phony around him.

There are a lot of children in Afghanistan, but little childhood.