In this essay, Caballero-Robb interprets Hosseini's novel The Kite Runner as a work that intertwines the private and public realms of experience.

'The message behind the very ending could be interpreted differently by different readers, but personally I feel that it offers a small sense of hope for both the future of its characters, and perhaps for war-torn Afghanistan as well.'

Khaled Hosseini’s debut novel brings fresh humanity to a world trapped in political cliche.

Do I really have to read The Kite Runner? That was the question asked in the Slate offices this spring when the debut novel by Afghan-American Khaled Hosseini hit the top of the New York Times best-seller list. The novel seemed eminently worthy, after all—not only the first one written in English by an Afghan, but chock-full of "eye-opening information about the turmoil in modern-day Afghanistan," as one reader put it.

In this essay I wish to contrast three recent works of Western fiction: two novels and one collection of short stories. The two novels have been lionised and one made into a successful film. The short stories have disappeared into the recesses of a small cult audience.