The Kite Runner (PDF), written in 2003 by Khaled Hosseini, has been on the American Library Association’s top ten lists of most challenged books in 2008 (for offensive language, sexually explicit material, and being unsuited to age group), in 2012 (for depictions of homosexuality, offensive language, religious viewpoints, sexually explicit), in 2014 (for offensive language, unsuited to age group, and violence), and again in 2017 for sexual violence.
The extraordinary story of an unlikely friendship between a wealthy Afghan boy, named Amir, and Hassan, the son of his father’s servant. The novel is set in Kabul, Afghanistan during the Soviet invasion in 1978, and depicts life in a nation that is in the process of being ravaged and destroyed. It is about the harshness of violence and rape; the power of education; the price of betrayal and the struggle for redemption; and the power fathers have over their sons.
An unforgettably inspiring story of family, love, salvation, and friendship told against the devastating backdrop of the history of Afghanistan over the last thirty years.