Themes
The Kite Runner focuses on themes such as betrayal, guilt, and redemption. It centers around two boys of different cultural backgrounds who are raised as close friends. When Amir fails to save Hassan, he is overcome with guilt and unable to move on. The book begs the question as to whether or not someone can truly redeem themselves and what is the cost of that redemption?
One of the main themes in his second book A Thousand Splendid Suns is the issue of women in Afghanistan. Hosseini says that he was motivated to write the book after hearing about the struggles, violence, and discrimination that women faced. In the book he writes about two women from different social backgrounds and chronicles their lives, friendship, and hardships.
Hosseini considers love and pain to be two of the major themes in his third novel, And the Mountains Echoed. It centers around the separation of siblings and the initial pain that Abdullah felt. But the theme of memory also seems to prominent in the book with Hosseini asking whether or not memory is a curse or blessing and whether or not the pain or happiness that memories can bring up is worth it. While Abdullah initially remembers Pari, he forgets her after suffering from Alzheimers. And Pair, who had forgotten her brother, learns about him only to find out he has forgotten her.
Hosseini's novels seem to focus mostly on universal themes that can reach individuals of many different background and isn't restricted to those of any particular culture, race, ethnicity, or religion. He believes that at their core, each of his novels are love stories, but rather than focusing on romantic love he explores the love between friends, sibling, and parents and children and in places where love was not expected to be found. Theme of love and the theme of family seems to be consistent theme throughout his books as well. In an interview Hosseini talked about The Kite Runner and A Thousand Splendid Suns saying that:
Both novels are multigenerational, and so the relationship between parent and child, with all of its manifest complexities and contradictions, is a prominent theme. I did not intend this, but I am keenly interested, it appears, in the way parents and children love, disappoint, and in the end honor each other. In one way, the two novels are corollaries: The Kite Runner was a father-son story, and A Thousand Splendid Suns can be seen as a mother-daughter story.
And his third book And the Mountains Echoed continued with theme, this time focusing on sibling relationships. Hosseini seems to focus mostly on universal themes, making his novels successful and able to reach many different readers, possibly contributing to his success as a writer.
