Kite Runner is reading group favourite for second year

Source: Guardian

Khaled Hosseini's bestselling story of a boy growing up in 1970s Kabul, The Kite Runner, has been voted the Reading Group Book of the Year for the second year running.
Published three years ago and lacking the marketing hype provided by the official literary awards, the book has been a slow-burning word-of-mouth success, spending two years in the New York Times bestseller list after an initial sluggish start, eventually selling over 8m copies worldwide.


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The first novel to be published in English by an Afghan author, it tells the story of the boyhood friendship between Amir and Hassan, set against the backdrop of events from the fall of the monarchy in Afghanistan to the Soviet invasion and the rise of the Taliban regime. It has been praised for its moving depiction of friendship and betrayal, and its insight into the life of ordinary people in Afghanistan - subjects which all provide rich areas for discussion for book groups and arguably eased its path to success in these awards, which were voted on by groups entering the Penguin/Orange Broadband Readers' Group prize and via the Penguin and Orange websites. Hosseini, who has now published a second novel, A Thousand Splendid Suns, acknowledged the power of word-of-mouth recommendations in the success of The Kite Runner.
"I am so very proud and moved that The Kite Runner continues to resonate with reading groups. So many distinguished novels are written every year, so many books to celebrate, which makes this prize that much more meaningful to me. I want to express my appreciation to reading groups for embracing this novel and for being so instrumental in generating the word of mouth that has been this book's lifeblood."



Three other books in this year's top six also featured in the list last year. We Need to Talk about Kevin by Lionel Shriver came second, up a place from last year. The Time Traveler's Wife by Audrey Niffenegger fell from second to sixth place while Andrea Levy's Small Island fell from third to fourth place. New entries in this year's list were Saturday by Ian McEwan in third place and Suite Francaise by Irene Nemirovsky in fourth.

While the book of the year has been awarded, the race is still on for the Penguin/Orange Broadband Readers' Group prize. The shortlist features The Book Gluttons from London, which gathers in Victoria library and meets the needs of commuters who would otherwise get home too late to join a local reading group; the VIP Readers' Group from London, all of whose members are visually impaired; Books on the Broad from Oxford which discusses novels from around the world as well as the history and culture which informs the writing; along with The Rugeley Book Club, (Staffordshire), St Mawgan Readers' Group, (Cornwall) and The Book Groupies, (Lincoln).

The group that wins the prize, now in its sixth year, will receive a selection of Penguin titles as well as an invitation to spend the day at Penguin's London offices, where they will have lunch with an author and then have a reading group session on that author's book. Last year's winner was the all-female Parish Reading Group from Goadby and Marwood in Leicestershire who received a visit from author Marina Lewycka.

The winning group will be announced later this month.