The Kite Runner

I finally got into this one sixty or so pages in, very near my threshold for giving up. Glad I stuck with it b/c I was unable to put it down once into the story. A boy from Afghanistan lives with a shameful secret about his boyhood friend/brother Hassan, and years later goes back to rescue the boy's son. Kite running = chasing after the fallen kite during kite fighting, where you try to cut your opponents' strings. Definitely worthwhile.