Congratulations on the Italian publication of the new 20th anniversary edition of THE KITE RUNNER from Feltrinelli by global bestseller Khaled Hosseini!
In the first two years of THE KITE RUNNER’S publication in the United States, over one million paperback copies were sold. Now with over 10 million copies sold worldwide THE KITE RUNNER is celebrating its 20th anniversary with a new Preface from the author and a stunning new Italian edition, which is the first of a slate of anticipated new 20th anniversary editions for THE KITE RUNNER!
This past weekend in advance of Feltrinelli’s new publication, the prestigious Corriere della Sera, an Italian daily newspaper published in Milan, shared an excerpt of Khaled Hosseini’s new amazing foreword for the 20th anniversary edition, in an impressive 2-page piece spread, which you can see here:
About THE KITE RUNNER:
Amir and Hassan are childhood friends in the alleys and orchards of Kabul in the sunny days before the invasion of the Soviet army and Afghanistan’s decent into fanaticism. Both motherless, they grow up as close as brothers, but their fates are to be different. Amir’s father is a wealthy merchant; Hassan’s father is his manservant. Amir belongs to the ruling caste of Pashtuns, Hassan to the despised Hazaras.
This fragile idyll is broken by the mounting ethnic, religious and political tensions that begin to divide Afghanistan further. An unspeakable assault on Hassan by a gang of local boys tears the friends apart; and when the Soviets invade Afghanistan, Amir and his father flee to San Francisco, leaving Hassan and his father to a pitiless fate. Only years later will Amir have an opportunity to redeem himself by returning to Afghanistan to begin to repay the debt long owed to the man who should have been his brother.
Compelling, heartrending and etched with details of a history never before told in fiction, The Kite Runner is a story of the ways in which we’re damned by our moral failures, and of the extravagant cost of redemption.
Praise for THE KITE RUNNER:
“A wonderful work. . . . This is one of those unforgettable stories that stay with you for years. All the great themes of literature and of life are the fabric of this extraordinary novel: love, honor, guilt, fear redemption. . . . It is so powerful that for a long time everything I read after seemed bland.” —Isabel Allende
“Stunning . . . an incisive, perceptive examination of recent Afghan history. . . . It is rare that a book is at once so timely and of such high literary quality.” —Publishers Weekly
“In The Kite Runner, Khaled Hosseini gives us a vivid and engaging story that reminds us how long his people have been struggling to triumph over the forces of violence—forces that continue to threaten them even today.” —New York Times
“A haunting morality tale.” —USA Today
“His passionate story of betrayal and redemption is framed by Afghanistan’s tragic recent past . . . Rather than settle for a coming-of-age or travails-of-immigrants story, Hosseini has folded them both into this searing spectacle of hard-won personal salvation. All this, and a rich slice of Afghan culture too: irresistible.” —Kirkus Reviews
“Like Gone with the Wind, this extraordinary first novel locates the personal struggles of everyday people in the terrible sweep of history.” —People
“To many Western readers, [Afghanistan’s] can be an exhausting and bewildering history. But Hosseini extrudes it into an intimate account of family and friendship, betrayal and salvation that requires no atlas or translation to engage and enlighten us.” —Washington Post
“Hosseini does tenderness and terror, California dream and Kabul nightmare with equal aplomb . . . a ripping yarn and ethical parable.” —Globe and Mail
“A beautiful novel . . . a song in a new key. Hosseini is an exhilaratingly original writer with a gift for irony and a gentle, perceptive heart . . . one of the most lyrical, moving and unexpected novels of the year.” —Denver Post
Khaled Hosseini was born in Kabul, Afghanistan, and moved to the United States in 1980. He is the author of the New York Times bestsellers The Kite Runner, A Thousand Splendid Suns, and And the Mountains Echoed. Hosseini is also a U.S. Goodwill Envoy to the UNHCR, the UN Refugee Agency, and the founder of The Khaled Hosseini Foundation, a nonprofit that provides humanitarian assistance to the people of Afghanistan.
Khaled Hosseini is represented by Samantha Haywood.
Congratulations Khaled!