KHALED HOSSEINI The Kite Runner *

It’s about a middle class Afghan who as a boy in Kabul betrays his best friend, the son of the family servant, and is racked by guilt thereafter. Our hero escapes to America via Pakistan and eventually returns to Afghanistan in dramatic style to find redemption.

Despite some interesting descriptions of life in Afghanistan and for ex-pat Afghans in the States, I really disliked this book.

I got annoyed by the tone. It’s that ‘Horse Whisperer’ ‘Bridges of Madison County’ sentimentality, where the narration never raises its voice, but seeks to use calm, ‘beautiful’ prose to describe the torments the central characters are going through.

The first person narrative doesn't work. Our hero is just too self-aware. He always knows exactly what he’s doing and why – which doesn’t ring true for me at all. I wonder if it started out on life as a third person narration and then he changed it to make it seem more pacey.

Then it lapses into melodrama. In particular there's a climactic scene towards the end, when he meets his arch-enemy again, which is straight out of James Bond.

Come on – who’s read it and loved it?!