91 pages • 3 hours read
Khaled HosseiniA modern alternative to SparkNotes and CliffsNotes, SuperSummary offers high-quality Study Guides with detailed chapter summaries and analysis of major themes, characters, and more. For select classroom titles, we also provide Teaching Guides with discussion and quiz questions to prompt student engagement.
Chapter Summaries & Analyses
The year is now 1981. Amir and Baba flee Soviet-occupied Afghanistan as a vicious communist coup claims the country. In this new Afghanistan, those who do not observe religious edicts are hunted and persecuted, even reported by neighbors and relatives. Baba has paid a man named Karim to smuggle them out of Kabul in his truck along with several other Afghans. Amir is 18. He begins to feel carsick, and the truck must stop for him while Amir vomits on the shoulder of the road.
Although Amir had previously stated that he had an arrangement with Russians posted at a checkpoint out of Kabul, they are stopped, and a soldier who is visibly under the influence of drugs demands 20 minutes with a young bride from the group of refugees in the back of Karim’s truck. Baba intervenes, stating: “War doesn’t negate decency. It demands it, even more than in times of peace” (116). The Russian soldier unholsters his sidearm and threatens to shoot Baba. Closing his eyes, Amir hears a gunshot, but it is from the weapon of the soldier’s superior. The older Russian lets them pass, explaining that they send boys who come to Afghanistan and become lost in drugs.
By Khaled Hosseini