“I thought about something Rahim Khan said just before he hung up, almost as an afterthought. There is a way to be good again.”

In the novel’s opening scene, Amir contemplates a phone call he received from Rahim Khan, beckoning him to come to Pakistan. Rahim Khan’s cryptic message echoes throughout the novel, reminding Amir of the sins of his past and pushing him forward toward redemption.

“Hassan and I fed from the same breasts. We took our first steps on the same lawn in the same yard. And, under the same roof, we spoke our first words. Mine was Baba. His was Amir. My name. Looking back on it now, I think the foundation for what happened in the winter of 1975—and all that followed—was already laid in those first words.”

Amir recalls Hassan, his illegitimate half-brother and family servant, reflecting on their immutable childhood bond. Their first words serve to illustrate their deepest loves as well as their greatest betrayers. Amir’s obsession with gaining Baba’s love inevitably leads him to betray Hassan.

“‘When you kill a man, you steal a life,’ Baba said. ‘You steal his wife’s right to a husband, rob his children of a father. When you tell a lie, you steal someone’s right to the truth. When you cheat, you steal the right to fairness. Do you see?’”

After learning that to imbibe is considered a sin in the Islam faith, Amir asks his father if he is a sinner because he enjoys his regular glass of whiskey. Placing Amir on his knee, Baba gives Amir a rare council, explaining that theft is the only sin and all others are a variation on that same sin.