Very Short Summary
Kabul, Afghanistan, 1970s. Twelve-year-old Amir lived with his wealthy father and their Hazara servants, spending his days flying kites with Hassan, the servant's son.
After winning a kite-fighting tournament, Hassan ran to retrieve the last fallen kite for Amir. In an alley, he encountered the neighborhood bully Assef and his friends.
I had one last chance to make a decision. One final opportunity to decide who I was going to be. I could step into that alley, stand up for Hassan... or I could run. In the end, I ran.
Amir witnessed Hassan's assault but did nothing to help. Overwhelmed by guilt, he framed Hassan for theft, forcing Hassan and his father to leave. Shortly after, the Soviet invasion forced Amir and his father to flee to America.
Years later, Amir became a writer and married Soraya. He received a call from his father's old friend Rahim Khan, who revealed that Hassan, who was actually Amir's half-brother, had been killed by the Taliban. Hassan's son Sohrab was in danger in Kabul.
Seeking redemption, Amir returned to Taliban-controlled Afghanistan. He found Sohrab in the custody of the same bully, Assef, now a Taliban official. In a brutal confrontation, Sohrab saved Amir's life using his slingshot, just as his father once had.
After a difficult struggle with bureaucracy and Sohrab's suicide attempt, Amir brought the boy to America. Though deeply traumatized, Sohrab slowly began to heal, showing his first smile when he and Amir flew a kite together in a park.
Detailed Summary
Division into chapters is editorial.
Childhood in Kabul: Amir and Hassan
I became what I am today at the age of twelve, on a frigid overcast day in the winter of 1975. I remember the precise moment, crouching behind a crumbling mud wall, peeking into the alley near the frozen creek.
In Kabul, Afghanistan, during the peaceful years of the monarchy, two boys grew up together in the same household. One was Amir, who lived in a beautiful house in the wealthy Wazir Akbar Khan district with his father.
The other boy was Hassan, who lived with his father Ali in a small mud hut on the property. Hassan was Amir's constant companion and the son of their family servant.
Amir's father, known as Baba, was a wealthy and respected businessman in Kabul. He was a larger-than-life figure who built an orphanage and stood up against injustice, but he often seemed disappointed in his bookish, timid son.
Hassan was fiercely loyal to Amir and would do anything for him. The boys spent their days flying kites, playing games, and Hassan would run kites for Amir during tournaments. Hassan never denied Amir anything, even when Amir tested his loyalty in cruel ways. Despite their close friendship, their relationship was complicated by ethnic and class differences - Amir was a Pashtun and Hassan was a Hazara, considered an inferior ethnic group in Afghan society.
A neighborhood bully named Assef often tormented Hassan because of his ethnicity. Assef was a sociopathic teenager who admired Hitler and terrorized other children with brass knuckles. One day, when Assef threatened Amir, Hassan defended him by aiming his slingshot at Assef's eye, forcing him to back down. Assef swore he would get revenge.
The Kite Tournament and Its Aftermath
For you, a thousand times over. Hassan the harelipped kite runner... I sat on a park bench near a willow tree. I thought about something Rahim Khan said just before he hung up, almost as an afterthought. There is a way to be good again.
In the winter of 1975, during Kabul's annual kite-fighting tournament, Amir won the competition with Hassan's help. As the last kite fell, Hassan ran to retrieve it - the greatest prize of the tournament. He promised Amir he would bring it back, saying 'For you, a thousand times over.' However, in the alley where Hassan found the kite, Assef and his friends cornered him.
When you tell a lie, you steal someone's right to the truth. When you cheat, you steal the right to fairness... there is no act more wretched than stealing. I hadn't been happy and I hadn't felt better, not at all.
Amir witnessed Assef's brutal assault on Hassan but was too cowardly to intervene. He watched from hiding as Assef raped Hassan, who never resisted or gave up the kite. This moment of betrayal would haunt Amir for the rest of his life. Afterward, Hassan knew that Amir had seen everything, but he never mentioned it. Amir, consumed by guilt and unable to face Hassan, began to avoid him. He even planted his birthday presents and money under Hassan's mattress and falsely accused him of stealing.
Hassan's Departure and the Fall of Kabul
Unable to bear the guilt and shame of his actions, Amir manipulated events so that Hassan and Ali would leave. Despite Baba's protests and evident distress, Ali insisted they must go. Hassan and his father left the house forever, leaving Baba devastated. Shortly after, in 1978, Afghanistan's political situation deteriorated as the communist party seized power.
In 1981, during the Soviet occupation, Amir and Baba were forced to flee Afghanistan. They made a perilous journey to Pakistan and eventually settled as refugees in California. Baba worked at a gas station, and though the adjustment was difficult for him, he never complained. He supported Amir's education and helped him graduate from college.
New Life in America
America was different. America was a river, roaring along, unmindful of the past. I could wade into this river, let my sins drown to the bottom, let the waters carry me someplace far. Someplace with no ghosts.
In California, Amir met and fell in love with Soraya Taheri, the daughter of an exiled Afghan general. Despite her past indiscretions, which she honestly revealed to Amir before their marriage, they wed with their families' blessings. Baba died shortly after their wedding, content to have seen his son married.
The Call from Rahim Khan
Years later, Amir received a call from Rahim Khan, his father's old friend, asking him to come to Pakistan. Rahim Khan was dying and had important information to share. When Amir arrived in Pakistan, Rahim Khan revealed the truth: Hassan was actually Amir's half-brother, the illegitimate son of Baba and Ali's wife.
Rahim Khan also told Amir that Hassan and his wife had been killed by the Taliban while protecting Baba's house in Kabul, where they had lived as caretakers. Their young son, Sohrab, had been taken to an orphanage. Rahim Khan asked Amir to go to Kabul and rescue Sohrab, giving him a chance to atone for his past sins.
Return to Taliban-Controlled Kabul
Amir traveled to Taliban-controlled Kabul with a guide named Farid. They discovered that Sohrab had been taken from the orphanage by a Taliban official who regularly claimed children. The official turned out to be Assef, who had become a sadistic Taliban leader.
Confrontation with Assef and Rescue of Sohrab
At Assef's compound, Amir found Sohrab being kept as a dancing boy and sex slave. Assef agreed to release the boy only if Amir would fight him. In the brutal confrontation that followed, Assef nearly killed Amir, but Sohrab saved him by shooting Assef's eye out with his slingshot, just as his father Hassan had once threatened to do.
Amir and Sohrab escaped to Pakistan, where Amir recovered from his injuries. He promised Sohrab he would take him to America and never send him to an orphanage. However, complications with the adoption process forced Amir to temporarily place Sohrab in an orphanage, breaking his promise. Devastated by this betrayal, Sohrab attempted suicide.
Redemption and New Beginnings
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.
Sohrab survived his suicide attempt, but the trauma left him completely withdrawn and silent. Despite the challenges, Amir and Soraya succeeded in bringing him to America. Though Sohrab remained silent for nearly a year, Amir patiently cared for him, determined not to fail Hassan's son as he had failed Hassan.
It was only a smile, nothing more. It didn't make everything all right. It didn't make anything all right. Only a smile. A tiny thing. A leaf in the woods, shaking in the wake of a startled bird's flight.
The story concluded with a small sign of hope. At an Afghan gathering in San Francisco, Amir bought a kite for Sohrab and offered to fly it with him, just as Hassan had once done for Amir. When they successfully cut another kite, Sohrab gave a tiny smile - his first since coming to America. Though this small gesture couldn't erase the past, it suggested the possibility of healing and redemption.