“Black Like Me” is a remarkable nonfiction book of what it is like to be black person in the deep south. It describes the discrimination a man faces every day just based on the color his skin and how far we have come regarding racial issues. I definitely recommend that everyone read this book…it is a true uncensored description of racial discrimination in the south.

“Glass Bead Game” is a literal translation of the German title. The title has also been translated as Magister Ludi. “Magister Ludi”, Latin for “master of the game,” is the name of an honorific title awarded to the book’s central character. Magister Ludi can also be seen as a pun: lud- is a Latin stem meaning both “game” and “school.”

Plot summary

The Glass Bead Game takes place at an unspecified date, centuries into the future. Hesse suggested that he imagined the book’s narrator writing around the start of the 25th century. The setting is a fictional province of central Europe called Castalia, reserved by political decision for the life of the mind; technology and economic life are kept to a strict minimum. Castalia is home to an austere order of intellectuals with a twofold mission: to run boarding schools for boys (the novel is thus a detailed exploration of education and the life of the mind), and to nurture and play the Glass Bead Game (see below).

The novel follows the life of a distinguished member of the order, Joseph Knecht (the surname translates as “servant” or “farm hand” but can also mean “vassal” or “knight”), as narrated by a fictional historian of the order. Hence the novel is an example of a Bildungsroman. The text, written in a scholarly biographical style, chronicles the precocious protagonist’s decision to join the order, his mastery of the Game, and his advancing in the order’s hierarchy, eventually being given the title Magister Ludi, reserved for the Game’s finest player.

However, Knecht’s loyalty to the order is brought into question as he gradually comes to doubt whether the intellectually gifted have a right to withdraw from life’s big problems. Knecht comes to see Castalia as a kind of ivory tower, an ethereal protected community, devoted to pure intellectual pursuits, but oblivious to the problems posed by life outside its borders. This conclusion precipitates a personal crisis, and accordingly, Knecht does the unthinkable: he resigns as Magister Ludi and asks to leave the order, ostensibly to become of value and service, in some way, to the larger culture. The heads of the order deny his request to leave, but Knecht departs Castalia anyway, initially taking a job as a tutor to his childhood friend’s son. Only a few days later, he drowns in a mountain lake while attempting a swim for which he was not fit. The story ends abruptly.

The narrator breaks off before the final sections of the book, remarking that the end of the story is beyond the scope of his biography. The concluding chapter, entitled “The Legend”, is reportedly from a different biography. After this final chapter, several of Knecht’s “posthumous” works are then presented. The first section contains Knecht’s poetry from various periods of his life. Then three short stories follow. The first tells of an ancient pagan named Knecht; the second of Josephus, an early Christian hermit; and the final story covers the life of Dasa, an Indian prince who grows up as a cowherd. All three stories cover the lives of spiritual seekers who learn the mystic traditions of their respective eras from sagacious teachers. Originally, Hesse intended several different lives of the same person as he is reincarnated.Instead, he focused on the story set in the future and place the three shorter stories, “authored” by Knecht, at the end of the novel.
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From the Back Cover
Following in the bestselling footsteps of Little Red Book of Selling, Little Red Book of Sales Answers, Little Black Book of Connections, and The Little Gold Book of YES! Attitude, Jeffrey Gitomer’s The Little Green Book of Getting Your Way digs deep into the 9.5 elements that make persuasion, and getting your way, happen. By breaking down the elements, the reader will begin to understand, take action, become proficient, and then master the ability to persuade. Because persuasion occurs in so many different areas of life and business, Gitomer leads the reader from mental readiness to the principles of getting your way and the power that persuasion offers. He challenges the reader to prepare before they present, to prepare before they try to persuade. He demonstrates how to change a presentation into a performance and shows how this can be done in any environment. But because persuasion most often takes place in business, he draws special emphasis to the reader’s ability to write and sell persuasively. The book talks about the persistence that enables winning persuasion. He brings the Benjamin Franklin quote “If at first you don’t succeed, try, try again” to the Gitomer level of “You only fail when you decide to quit,” and the book ends challenging the reader how to think about excellence and eloquence. It will be up to the reader to take advantage of the opportunity and harness the power.

About the Author
Jeffrey Gitomer is the world’s #1 expert on selling. He is author of the NY Times best-seller Little Gold Book of YES! Attitude, as well as WSJ and BusinessWeek best-seller Jeffrey Gitomer’s Little Red Book of Selling (over 400,000 sold), WSJ and BusinessWeek best-seller The Little Red Book of Sales Answers (Prentice Hall) (over 130,000 sold); The Sales Bible (over 200,000 sold) ; and Customer Satisfaction is Worthless, Customer Loyalty is Priceless. He gives over 100 presentations a year, serving customers ranging from Coca-Cola to Cingular Wireless to Wells Fargo Bank to IBM and Mercedes Benz.

Though originally a 24 week correspondence course, it was published in book form in 1917. Along with “The Science of Getting Rich”, by Wallace D. Wattles, the Master Key System is the source of Rhonda Byrne’s inspiration for the book and the film “The Secret” (2006).

Charles F. Haanel was an American author, millionaire, entrepreneur, and businessman who belonged to several Masonic societies, the American Scientific League, The Author’s League of America, The American Society of Psychical Research, the St. Louis Humane Society, and the St. Louis Chamber of Commerce.

Other books based on it

• Abundance and Prosperity – The Master Key System Decoded by Prof. C. W. Haanel Mentz ISBN 1-4257-1035-2
• The Master Key System in 24 Parts – Re-Edited by Anthony R. Michalski ISBN 0-9678514-0-8
• Master Key System (28 Part Complete Deluxe Edition) – Ishtar Publishing (July 2007) ISBN 978-0-9780535-8-1

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Breakfast dishes

• Jok (Thai: โจ๊ก) – a rather bland rice porridge very commonly eaten in Thailand for breakfast. Similar to the the rice congee eaten in other parts of Asia.
• Khao Tom (Thai: ข้าวต้ม) – a Thai style rice soup, usually with pork.

Individual dishes

Central Thai shared dishes

• Tom yam (Thai: ต้มยำ) – hot & sour soup with meat. With shrimp it is called Tom yam goong or Tom yam kung (Thai: ต้มยำกุ้ง), with seafood (typically shrimp, squid, fish) Tom yam talae (Thai: ต้มยำทะเล), with chicken Tom yam gai (Thai: ต้มยำไก่).

• Gai Pad Khing (Thai: ไก่ผัดขิง) – chicken stir-fried with sliced ginger.
• Tom kha gai (Thai: ต้มข่าไก่) – hot sweet soup with chicken and coconut milk.
• Saté (Thai: สะเต๊ะ) – grilled meat, usually pork or chicken, served with cucumber salad and peanut sauce (actually of Indonesian origin, but now a popular street food in Thailand).
• Red curry (Gaeng Phet lit. ‘hot curry’, Thai: แกงเผ็ด) – made with copious amounts of dried red chillies
• Green curry (Gaeng khiew-waan, Thai: แกงเขียวหวาน) – green curry, made with fresh green chillies and flavoured with Thai basil, and chicken or fish meatballs. This dish is one of the spiciest of Thai curries.
• Massaman curry (Thai: แกงมัสมั่น) – an Indian style curry, usually made by Thai-Muslims, containing roasted dried spices, such as coriander seed, that are rarely found in other Thai curries.
• Pad prik (Thai: ผัดพริก) – usually beef stir fried with chili, called Neua pad prik (Thai: เนื้อผัดพริก)
• Pad kaphrao (Thai: ผัดกะเพรา) – beef, pork or chicken stir fried with Thai Holy basil.
• Pad pak ruam (Thai: ผัดผักรวม) – stir fried combination of vegetables depending on availability and preference.
• Panaeng (Thai: พะแนง) – dry curry with beef (Panang beef, Thai: พะแนงเนื้อ), chicken, or pork. It includes some roasted dried spices similar to Massaman curry.
• Tod man (Thai: ทอดมัน) – deep fried fishcake made from knifefish (Tod man pla krai, Thai: ทอดมันปลากราย) or shrimp (Tod man kung, Thai: ทอดมันกุ้ง)
• Boo Jah (Thai: ปูจ๋า) – crab cakes with pork, garlic, and pepper served with a simple spicy sauce, such as Sri Rachaa sauce, sweet-hot garlic sauce, nahm prik pao (roasted chili paste), or red curry paste and chopped green onions.
• Choo-Chee Plah Ga-Pong (Thai: ฉู่ฉี่ปลากระพง) – snapper in choo-chee curry sauce (thick red curry sauce)

Northeastern shared dishes

Desserts and drinks

• Kao niao ma muang (Thai: ข้าวเหนียวมะม่วง) – Sticky rice and ripe mango
• Kao niao Durian (Thai: ข้าวเหนียวทุเรียน) – Sticky rice and durian in coconut milk
• Gluay buad chee (Thai: กล้วยบวชชี)- Banana in coconut milk
• Foi Tong (Thai: ฝอยทอง), Tong yib (Thai: ทองหยิบ), Tong yod (Thai: ทองหยอด) – Different forms of egg yolk mixed with sugar and other ingredients. Some believe this is European in origin.
• Kanome Maw Gaeng (Thai: ขนมหม้อแกง) – sweet potato pudding
• Fried Banana with Ice Cream
• Cha Yen (Thai: ชาเย็น) – Thai Iced Tea
• Kah-Feh Yen (Thai: กาแฟเย็น) – Thai Iced Coffee

Coconut is a main ingredient in desserts, in particular the milk and the shredded coconut pieces. The coconut milk is used in a lot of dishes as the soup or base and some of the desserts are rolled in shredded coconut for taste and look. These are some of the desserts that contain coconut:

• Lod Chong Nam Ka Ti – Pandan flavored rice flour noodles in coconut milk
• Kanom Tan – Palm flavored mini cake with shredded coconut on top
• Ruam Mit – Chestnuts covered in flour, jackfruit, tapioca, and Lod Chong in coconut milk
• Kanom Chun – multi-layers of pandan-flavored sticky rice flour mixed with coconut milk
• Kanom Bua Loy – taro root mixed with flour into balls in coconut milk

Variations

Throughout the country there are many interpretations and variations on these common dishes. Other dishes from the northern part of Thailand include unique sauces and exotic foods, such as raw beef, fermented fish paste, and deep fried insect larvae (also enjoyed in the Northeast). The culinary creativity even extends to naming: one tasty larva translates as “freight train” (rot duan ; Thai: รถด่วน) and the smallest, hottest chillies are known as phrik khii nuu (Thai: พริกขี้หนู), literally “mouse shit chillies”. In the Northeast, eating insects is common, and the giant water bug (mang dah; Thai: แมงดา) is popular.The dish nam prik pla too (Thai: น้ำพริกปลาทู) is particularly common in central Thailand because of its low cost. It consists of deep fried Indian mackerel, Rastrelliger kanagurta (pla too) served with a shrimp-and-chilli paste (nam prik kapi). The fish are traditionally presented in pairs, placed head-to-tail on a round bamboo dish.

References

 Introduction and Death

The novel opens at Ruby Pier on Eddie’s 83rd birthday. He goes about his normal routine until one of the rides breaks. Eddie gives a fellow worker, Dominguez, instructions on how to fix the ride; however, one of the carts breaks free from the ride and falls to the pier. Eddie jumps out of the way and tries to push a little girl out of the path of the falling cart. Eddie does not get out of the way in time and is killed by the falling cart.

Journey to Heaven

 First Person in Heaven

Eddie travels to heaven and meets his first person, the Blue Man. The Blue Man informs Eddie that he is going to meet five people in heaven whose lives he has somehow affected. The Blue Man tells Eddie how he is indirectly responsible for his death: When Eddie was a child, he and his brother Joe were playing with a ball that bounced into the street. Eddie ran into the street to get the ball as the Blue Man was driving by. The Blue Man swerved out of the way, terrified that he would hit Eddie. Eddie ran safely back out of the street but the Blue Man was still extremely anxious having almost hit him. His anxiety caused him to drive recklessly and hit another car, which killed him. The Blue Man teaches Eddie his first lesson, which is that there are no random acts in life, and that all incidents are intertwined in some way.

Second Person in Heaven

After this lesson, Eddie finds himself back on a war ground, which resembled that on which he fought during WWII. There, he meets his second person in heaven, his former Army Captain. During WWII Eddie fought in the Philippines and he, the captain and a few other soldiers were taken as prisoners of war. Through a juggling act, Eddie is able to distract the captors so he and the other prisoners can kill them and escape. When they leave the camp, they decide to burn it down for revenge. Eddie swears he sees a small shadow crawling in the flames and runs in after it. The other soldiers tried to get Eddie out of the fire; however, he was so insistent that he saw a child in the fire that he kept trying to get in the hut. The Captain did not want Eddie to die, or to leave him behind, so he shot him in the leg so the others could get him out of the fire. This is how Eddie got the injury that made him very depressed for the rest of his life.

The Captain teaches Eddie the second lesson of sacrifice. Eddie finds out that the Captain died trying to make sure the path was clear for the rest of his men to cross. He says that he sacrificed Eddie’s leg to get him out of the fire alive, and also that he sacrificed his own life to save the lives of Eddie and the soldiers.

 Third Person in Heaven

Eddie then finds himself in a mountain range. He finds a single diner at the bottom of the mountains and through the window he can see his father sitting at a table. He meets Ruby who tells him that it is her for who the pier is named. She shows Eddie a horrifying scene where Mickey Shea almost hurt his mother; Eddie’s father saw what happened and chased Mickey Shea to, possibly, kill him. Mickey falls off the pier into the sea and Eddie’s father saves his life. This is the night where Eddie’s father caught pneumonia which later killed him. Ruby allows Eddie to see that his father was being loyal to one of his best friends. Ruby teaches Eddie to let go of the anger he has for his father. Eddie does this by visiting him in the diner and telling him “It’s fixed.”

Fourth Person in Heaven

Eddie blinks and finds himself in a room whose doors lead to different wedding receptions. Eddie walks through the different receptions and meets his fourth person, Marguerite, his long dead wife. She and Eddie talk for a long while, as this is the first time they have been reunited since her death. For his fourth lesson, Marguerite teaches Eddie about the power of love; she states that even though people pass away, their love does not die. Marguerite tells Eddie that she loved him even after her death and that true love endures forever.

Fifth Person in Heaven

The final person Eddie meets in heaven is a young Asian girl, named Tala. Tala explains to Eddie that he killed her in a fire, and Eddie realizes that he had seen a child in the burning hut in the Philippines during the War. Tala’s skin suddenly becomes marked with burns and scars. Eddie washes her free of all her burns and injuries from the fire. For his last lesson, Tala allows Eddie to see that his place in life was to be at Ruby Pier keeping the children safe. When Eddie asks if he pulled the girl out of the way of the falling cart, Tala replies negatively, pointing out that he pushed her out of the way.

 Ruby Pier

Eddie grows up at Ruby Pier as his father worked there as a maintenance man. When he grows up, he tries to leave the pier behind him and takes up jobs such as driving taxis instead of following in his father’s footsteps. When his father dies, he is forced to take up his old job in an effort to support his wife and his mother financially. He and his wife end up living in an apartment from which the Carousel at Ruby Pier can be seen. In the end, Eddie never does leave Ruby Pier and lives out his days until he eventually dies while saving a young girl from dying under a malfunctioning free-falling ride.

The fictional amusement park “Ruby Pier” where Eddie works seems to draw many parallels to the real life amusement park “Luna Park” located in Coney Island, although it also has many similarities to Pacific Park as well. These parallels include…

• Both parks are named after people close to the original owner
  • Luna Park for owner’s sister Luna
  • Ruby Pier for owner’s wife Ruby (one of the people Eddie meets in heaven)
• Both parks had fires that lead to the loss of the original ownership
  • Ruby Park’s fire leads to the selling of the park
  • Because of the expensive costs, Luna Park is let go by the original owner(s) (not sold away)
• Both parks had/have very grand entrances
  • seem to be described (by the book and in pictures of Luna Park) as very similar entrances by the large scale and grand arches/domes

Trivia

In The Simpsons Movie, one of the townspeople says, “You’re one of the five people I’ll meet in hell!”

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Introduction

The Kite Runner tells the story of Amir, a boy from the Wazir Akbar Khan district of Kabul, who is haunted by the guilt of betraying his childhood friend Hassan, the son of his father’s Hazara servant. The story is set against a backdrop of tumultuous events, from the fall of the monarchy in Afghanistan through the Soviet invasion, the mass exodus of refugees to Pakistan and the United States, and the Taliban regime.

 Plot

(The story of 25 chapters is narrated by Amir, directed to the reader, except that chapter 16 is narrated by Rahim Khan, directed to Amir.)

The two main characters of the story are Amir, a well-to-do Afghan boy, and Hassan, a Hazara (the supposed son of Amir’s father’s servant, Ali but actual illegitimate son of Baba). The boys spend their days in a peaceful Kabul, kite fighting, roaming the streets and being boys. Amir’s father, Baba, loves both the boys, but seems often to favor Hassan for being more manly. He is critical of Amir. Amir’s mother died in childbirth, and Amir fears his father blames him for his mother’s death. However, he has a kind father figure in the form of Rahim Khan, Baba’s friend, who understands Amir better, and is supportive of his interest in writing stories.

A notoriously violent older boy with Nazi sympathies, Assef, blames Amir for socializing with a Hazara, according to Assef an inferior race that should only live in Hazarajat. He prepares to attack Amir with his brass knuckles, but Hassan bravely stands up to him, threatening to shoot Assef in the eye with his slingshot. Assef and his henchmen back off, but Assef says he will take revenge.

Hassan is a “kite runner” for Amir, he runs to fetch kites Amir has defeated by cutting their strings. He knows where the kite will land without even seeing it. One triumphant day, Amir wins the local tournament, and finally Baba’s praise. Hassan goes to run the last cut kite, a great trophy, for Amir saying “For you, a thousand times over.” Unfortunately, Hassan runs into Assef and his two henchmen. Hassan refuses to give up Amir’s kite, so Assef extracts his revenge, assaulting and anally raping him. Wondering why Hassan is taking so long, Amir searches for Hassan and hides when he hears Assef’s voice. He witnesses what happens to Hassan but is too scared to help him. Afterwards, for some time Hassan and Amir keep a distance from each other. When Hassan wants to pick up their friendship again Amir holds it off. When people ask what is the matter, Amir reacts indifferently. He feels ashamed, and is frustrated by Hassan’s saint-like behavior and worries that Baba loves Hassan more, and would love him even more if he knew what happened to Hassan and Amir’s cowardly inaction.

To force Hassan to leave, Amir frames him as a thief, and Hassan falsely confesses. Baba forgives him, despite the fact that, as he explained earlier, he believes that “there is no act more wretched than stealing”. Hassan and his father Ali, to Baba’s extreme sorrow, leave anyway. Hassan’s departure frees Amir of the daily reminder of his cowardice and betrayal, but he still lives in their shadow.

A short while later, the Russians invade Afghanistan; Amir and Baba escape to Peshawar, Pakistan and then to Fremont, California, where Amir and Baba, who lived in luxury in an expensive mansion in Afghanistan, settle in a run-down apartment and Baba begins work at a gas station. Amir eventually takes classes at a local community college to develop his writing skills. Every Sunday, Baba and Amir make extra money selling used goods at a flea market in San Jose. There, Amir meets Soraya Taheri and her family; Soraya’s father has contempt of Amir’s literary aspiration. Baba has lung cancer but is still capable to do Amir a big favor: he asks Soraya’s father permission for Amir to marry her. He agrees and the two marry. Shortly thereafter Baba dies. Amir and Soraya learn that they cannot have children.

Amir embarks on a successful career as a novelist. Fifteen years after they said goodbye, Amir receives a call from Rahim Khan, who is dying from an illness, who asks him to come to Pakistan. He enigmatically tells Amir “there is a way to be good again”. Amir goes.

From Rahim Khan, Amir learns the fates of Ali and Hassan. Ali was killed by a land mine. Hassan had a wife and a son, named Sohrab, and had returned to Baba’s house as a caretaker at Rahim Khan’s request. One day the Taliban ordered him to give it up and leave, but he refused, and was murdered, along with his wife. And the secret truth about Hassan is that Ali was not his father. He is the son of Baba, and Amir’s half-brother. Finally, Rahim Khan reveals that the true reason he has called Amir to Pakistan is to go to Kabul to rescue Hassan’s son, Sohrab, from an orphanage.

Amir returns to Taliban-controlled Kabul with a guide, Farid, and search for Sohrab at the orphanage. However, he does not find Sohrab there. The director of the orphanage tells them that a Taliban official has recently taken him. He tells him to go to a football match and the man with the sunglasses will be the man who took Sohrab.

Amir goes and secures an appointment with him at his home. There he finds out that the Taliban official is actually his childhood nemesis Assef. Sohrab is made to dance dressed in women’s clothes, and it seems Assef might have been sexually assaulting him (Sohrab later says: “I’m so dirty and full of sin. The bad man and the other two did things to me”). Assef agrees to relinquish him, but only if Amir can beat him in a fight to death, with Sohrab as the prize. Assef brutally beats Amir, but Amir is saved when Sohrab uses his slingshot to shoot out Assef’s left eye, fulfilling the threat his father had made years before.

Amir tells Sohrab of his plans to take him back to America and possibly adopt him, and promises that he will never be sent to an orphanage again. When difficulties arise in adopting Sohrab from Afghanistan, Amir tells Sohrab that he might have to stay in an orphanage for a while after all, and, Sohrab, devastated that Amir considers going back on his promise, attempts suicide. Amir finds Sohrab in time to save his life, and takes him back to the United States. However, Sohrab is emotionally damaged and refuses to speak. This continues on for about a year until his frozen emotions are temporarily thawed when Amir reminisces about his father, Hassan, while kite flying. Amir shows off some of Hassan’s tricks, and Sohrab begins to interact with Amir again. In the end Sohrab only shows a lopsided smile, but Amir takes to it with all his heart as he runs the kite for Sohrab, saying, “For you, a thousand times over.” This is a play on the last words spoken to Amir by Hassan before the rape, and denotes the sense of atonement that surrounds the novel.

 Characters

• Amir — protagonist and narrator of the novel, said to be born in 1963, in Kabul, who begins as a well-to-do boy in monarchical Afghanistan and later migrates to America following the downfall of the monarchy. Amir is Hassan’s half brother; however, Amir does not learn of their relationship until much later in his life. Hassan never learns of the relationship.
• Hassan — a childhood friend of Amir, although Amir never explicitly admitted to this. Hassan is first thought to be the son of Ali (Baba’s servant and inexplicit childhood friend) and Sanaubar; later in the story, Hassan is revealed to be the illegitimate son of Baba and Sanaubar. Hassan died without ever knowing about this fact.
• Assef — a sadistic, bisexual teenage rapist (and later notorious pedophile) from Amir’s neighborhood in Kabul, antagonist. As a teenager, he rapes Hassan. As an adult he sexually assaults Hassan’s son, Sohrab, and numerous other young children of both genders. Assef is the son of a German mother and Afghan father. He is a Nazi sympathizer and a has hatred of Hazaras, giving a book about his “idol” Adolf Hitler to Amir for his thirteenth birthday. Many years later, he becomes a Talib-executioner and pedophile. Sohrab severely damages one of Assef’s eyes during Assef’s fight with Amir.
• Baba — The father of Amir and Hassan. He is said to be born in the year 1933 (when the Afghan king begins his 40-year reign). He is described as a big, strong, healthy looking man with wild brown hair and beard. Baba is depicted to be of about 1.96 meter (6′5″) in height. He is a bit of a party-maker, and known for his strength. (He is said to have fought with a black bear and won the fight, in his younger years). During the book, Baba seems to be a bit disappointed in his son Amir, who he wishes to be as much as a man as he is (but his son only reads books and lets others fight off bullies for him). After leaving Afghanistan for America, he ages quickly and dies at fifty-three, in 1986, of cancer. He lives long enough, though, to see his son Amir marry a young Afghan woman called Soraya. Many people attend his funeral.
• Ali — Baba’s servant and inexplicit childhood friend. He is initially thought to be the father of Hassan. Before the events of the novel, he had been struck with polio, rendering his right leg useless. He is killed by a land mine.
• Rahim Khan — Baba’s business partner and best friend in Afghanistan, later he was the one who tells Amir about Hassan’s actual father. Amir liked him as a child, and Rahim Khan is also the one who invited Amir back to Afghanistan to pick up Sohrab. Later in the story, Rahim Khan goes off alone leaving a letter to Amir telling him not to find him. He dies peacefully knowing he has successfully made Amir the man Baba wanted him to be.
• Soraya — an Afghan woman living in Fremont, California. She marries Amir. Soraya wants to become a teacher. Before marrying Amir, she ran away with an Afghan boyfriend in Virginia, which according to Afghan tradition made her unsuitable for marriage, but because Amir also had his own regrets, loved and married her anyway.
• Sohrab — son of Hassan, traumatized and sexually abused by the Taliban; Rahim Khan contacts Amir later in life in an attempt to get him to come back to Afghanistan to find Sohrab. In the end, he is adopted by Amir.
• Sanaubar — Ali’s wife who gives birth to Hassan as a result of an affair with Baba. She then leaves home to pursue the life of a gypsy. She later returns to Hassan in his adulthood, providing a grandmother figure for Sohrab.
• Farid — bitter driver who is initially abrasive toward Amir but later befriends him. Farid’s two daughters were killed by a land mine years back. Farid is Amir’s means of transport, information, and knowledge of current Afghanistan when he returns.

Reception

The novel was the third best seller for 2005 in the United States, according to Nielsen BookScan. It was also voted 2006’s reading group book of the year. Hosseini’s first novel headed a list of 60 titles submitted by entrants to the Penguin/Orange Reading Group prize (UK).

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The book is a biography of Nash, starting with his childhood, over his years at Princeton and MIT, his work for the RAND Corporation, his family, to his trouble with schizophrenia. It ends with the awarding of the Nobel prize in 1994. The book is a detailed description of all aspects of Nash’s life and a close examination of his personality and motivation and gives an interesting perspective on the stresses placed on personal and professional relationships by mental health problems.

The book won the 1998 National Book Critics Circle Award for Biography, a nomination for the Pulitzer Prize for biography, as well as making the New York Times bestseller list. It is particularly notable for describing Nash’s genius as well as his struggle with mental illness.

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