Khaled Hosseini's The Kite Runner

Just finished reading The Kite Runner by Khaled Hosseini, a novel I could hardly put down. Despite exhibiting some awkwardnesses and excesses of a first novel (actually, I love its excesses), it is a staggering masterpiece, and will be a hard act for me, as a reader, to follow. (Actually I've decided to go back to poetry/non-fiction for a while.) And since Hosseini poured so much of himself into it, I think it will be a hard act for him to follow. Needless to say, highly recommended. Hosseini is an emigre from Afghanistan, probably the only Afghan writer writing in English. What a timely book, as it is about coming of age at the time of Afghanistan's descent into war and depravity (and more war, more depravity). Apparently he's a physician who wakes up every morning at 4:00 in order to write. That in itself is inspiring. Read more about the book at

http://www.khaledhosseini.com/