(Note: This is a re-post with minor edits. I once posted this summary in my old blog in 2005, which does not exist now).

Novel Title: A curious incident of the dog in the night-time (Author: Mark Haddon)

This novel tells a story with the perspective of an autistic boy, Christopher, 15 years old. The story started with a death of a dog belonged to a neighbor, which made Christopher decided to investigate to find out who themurderer was, which led to surprising and sad revelations.

Christopher likes Sherlock Holmes (for being logical) but doesn’t like the author Sir Arthur Conan Doyle (who believed in supernatural things). Christopher loves dogs, wants to be an astronaut, has a videographic (not just photographic) memory, is very brilliant in math (knows prime numbers up to a very big number) and science. He’s always honest (because he cannot make up stories to lie). He hates yellow and brown, loves red, doesn’t like crowds (and strangers) and always has big problem recognizing human emotions and sentences with metaphors (though similes are OK).

This novel gives some insights of how an autistic mind works.

(Note: This is a re-post with minor edits. I once posted this summary in my old blog in 2005, which does not exist now).

Novel Title: The Kite Runner (Author: Khaled Hosseini)

This is a story about a man (a Pashtun, majority tribe in Afghanistan) revisited his homeland after receiving a letter from an old friend of his family, a letter sending a photograph of a man who used to be his childhood friend, a son of his father’s servant (a Hazara, minority tribe from lower social class).

The man told stories of his childhood years, of Afghanistan history(before Russia invasion, during and after the invasion) and of the time when he revisited the country when the Taliban was in control). An incident happened at his childhood years: he neglected his loyal and loving Hazara friend, a turning point of their relationship. For you a thousand times over, that was the last words of his friend.

His cowardice, disloyalty brought regrets and eventually brought him back to his homeland because, as the letter he received said, there’s something could be repaired. He found many things: sad revelations about his Hazara brother, his father, how his homeland had become, encounter with an old enemy. Most importantly, he found his courage.

This is a great novel, very touching. About love, hate, pride, sorrows, regrets, forgiveness, Afghans, and Afghanistan.

(Note: This is a re-post with minor edits. I once posted this summary in my old blog in 2007, which does not exist now).

Novel Title: A Thousand Splendid Suns (Author: Khaled Hosseini)

A Thousand Splendid Suns tells a sad story of two Afghan women, who came from two different places and cultures but eventually gathered in one house in the war-ridden Kabul. A very sad book with all the miseries happened to those two poor women, with so many mean people around them.

The author introduced history of Afghanistan: from the monarchy era to the time of Soviet invasion, then the warlords era to the time when the Taliban took control until the Post 9/11 era.

I like one quote in the novel saying something like this: An Afghan can defeat all but himself. After all the hardships in fighting the Soviet, I find it sad that the Afghans should suffer from all the fighting among themselves…