"The Kite Runner" by Khaled Hosseini came highly recommended to me. I must confess I'm disappointed. I liked the first half of the book, which paints the picture of a family in pre-Taliban Kabul.I especially the loved the portrayal of child-like innocence and naivete' in the characterisation of Hassan. After a while, though, the story got too predictable, too cliche'd. Ok - so it is set in Afghanistan which is a change from the usual, but how many times have we read about betrayal, bullies, redemption ? Forever? The story IS touching, but it's just been told before. Period. My suspicion that this would end up being another Hollywood movie proved right. It is currently in pre-production, possibly out in 2007.