“The Kite Runner,” by Khaled Hosseini, is a powerful novel about a young man growing up in Afghanistan and eventually immigrating to America.

The book’s central theme is the young man’s quest for redemption after a traumatic life-altering event that occurs in his homeland is compounded by his childishness and cowardice. The story provides rare insight into the culture and people of Afghanistan, as well as into the Islamic faith and the traditions associated with both.

Hosseini describes the beauty and grace of the Afghanistan he knew as a child, followed by the devastating effects of the Russian invasion that changed his homeland forever. He confronts the transfer of power after the Russian invasion to the Taliban, the “native heroes,” and the initially warm embrace the latter receives in comparison to the hostile resentment the Afghan people feel concerning the Russian government itself.

The rosy honeymoon period after the Taliban takeover is short-lived, however, and inevitably ends in tragedy when the atrocities and violence of that government escalate into oppression of its own people and full-fledged genocide and torture inflicted on the Hazaras, traditionally considered a lower-class sect of Islam.

Hosseini describes the seductive appeal of the fundamentalist movement within Islam and the poisonous effect that it has on the government of the Afghan nation and its people.

The simplicity of the language and the shocking honesty about the culture makes this book powerful and moving. For Americans, this book provides rare insight into a world, religion and people we know very little about. On a literary basis, the central theme of redemption is supported by many subplots that confront the relationships between a father and a son, the religious beliefs that govern the country and its people, the inner struggle of the young man in his quest for honor and forgiveness and the vast difference between the western world and Afghanistan in every aspect.

This candid view into a world unfathomable by our standard of living is a priceless gift from Hosseini to his American audience. The challenges faced by his young protagonist, however, face all young people as they strive to determine who they are and what their own personal code of morals and ethics might be.

This book universally touches any person who has ever sought redemption for acts of dishonesty, cowardice or any other vice that accompanies fear.

“The Kite Runner” will unquestionably open the reader’s mind and challenge most commonplace perceptions of the country, people and traditions of Afghanistan.

The description of the nation’s demise at the hands of foreigners and eventually at the hands of its own people is as heart-wrenching as the young man’s quest to right the terrible betrayal that he committed against an innocent and loyal friend during his youth. Along the way, the discoveries about the young man’s past and the country he called home are riveting, and the images of both will remain etched in the reader’s mind.

Khaled Hosseini is speaking at Richardson High School on Monday, Sept. 19 at 8 p.m. Doors open at 7:30 p.m. This free event will include a lecture.