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Period: to
Afghanistan's turbulent history
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Amir's grandfather with the king
There are many family pictures in Amir's living room, including "an old grimy photo of my grandfather and King Nadir Shah taken in 1931" (Hosseini 5). -
Baba is born
1933 was "the year Baba was born and the year Zahir Shah began his forty-year reign of Afghanistan" (Hosseini 24). -
Amir is born
We know that Amir was born in 1963 because the author states, "I became what I am today at the age of twelve, on a frigid overcast day in the winter of 1975" (Hosseini 1). -
Hassan is born
Hassan was born a year after Amir, when "Sanubar gave birth to him one cold winter day in 1964" (Hosseini 6). -
Zahir Shah overthrown
After almost 40 years of being the king of Afghanistan, "Zahir Shah was in Italy for an eye operation when he was deposed in a palace coup by his cousin, Mohammad Daoud" (1). -
Amir tricks Hassan
Amir enjoys reading to Hassan in their tree, and "[o]ne day, in July 1973, I played another little trick on Hassan. I was reading to him and suddenly I strayed from the story" (Hosseini 30). This may have began his career as a writer. -
Assef corners Amir and Hassan
Amir and Hassan are just walking down the street when, "Assef and two of his friends, Wali and Kamal, were approaching us" (Hosseini 37). -
Hassan's operation
Baba hires a Dr. Kumar for Hassan, whose job is "to fix things on people's bodies. Sometimes their faces" (Hosseini 45). -
Amir wins the tournament
Down to the final two in the annual kite fighting tournament, Amir's kite "sliced my fingers again as the wind dragged it. And then . . ." (Hosseini 66). -
Assef attacks Hassan; Amir stands idly
When Assef corners Hassan and is about to attack him, Amir almost said something, but instead he "just watched. Paralyzed" (Hosseini 73). -
Ali and Hassan leave
After Hassan protects Amir by saying that he stole the watch and the money, Ali realizes what Amir really is and says, "We are leaving, Agha sahib" (Hosseini 106). -
April Revolution
After more than 200 years of uninterrupted rule by the family of Zahir Shah and Mohammad Daoud, "President Daoud and his family were shot dead, and Nur Mohammad Taraki took power as head of the country's first Marxist govermnent" (1). -
Amin's rise
Prime minister Hafizullah Amin, however, was opposed to Taraki, and, perhaps by Amin's supporters, "in October 1979 Taraki was secretly executed, with Amin becoming the new president" (1). -
Soviets arrive
After he had served for all of two months, "Amin was assassinated and the Soviet Red Army swept into Afghanistan" (2). -
U. S. Olympic boycott
As part of theri response to communism, "The U. S. announced it would be boycotting the Olympic Games in Moscow" (Hosseini 126). -
Baba and Amir in America
After spending six months in Peshwar, Pakistan, Baba and Amir finally make it to America, one of, according to Baba, the "three real men in this world" (Hosseini 125). -
Amir graduates high school
After two years of living in America, "I graduated from high school at the age of twenty, by far the oldest senior tossing his mortarboard on the football field that day" (Hosseini 131). -
Amir's first published novel
After many years of determination, Amir's first novel was "released in the the summer of 1989, and the publisher sent me on a five-city book tour" (Hosseini 183). -
Soviets fall
After over a million Afghans were killed over the course of a decade, "the Soviet Union eventually withdrew" (2). -
Najibullah falls
A man named Najibullah took over after the Soviets withdrew, "but fell in 1992 as the United Nations was trying to exchange a peaceful transfer of power" (2). -
the Taliban rise
After two years of infighting in Afghanistan, "the Taleban emerged in the southern city of Kandahar, heart of Afghanistan's Pashtun homeland" (2). -
Taliban capture Kabul
The Taliban swept across the country, seizing control of everything in their path, and "it was in 1996, when they captured Kabul, that much of the outside world first reacted in dismay to the Taleban's extreme Islamic environment" (3). -
Hazara massacre
This was a horrible mass shooting of Hazaras in Mazar-i-Sharif. As one soldier accounted, "Door to door we went, calling for the men and the boys. We'd shoot them right there in front of their families" (Hosseini 277). -
Amir returns to Afghanistan
Afghanistan is nothing like Amir remembered it. Instead of affluent neighborhoods and green grass and trees, "signs of poverty were everywhere" (Hosseini 231). -
the Taliban fall
As a result of the 9/11 attacks in New York and Washington, "the US and its allies began air attacks on Afghanistan which allowed the Taleban's Afghan opponents to sweep them from power" (3). -
New Constitution
Afghanistan had begun to clean itself up after the Taliban years, and "a loya jirga (grand council) in January 2004 adopted a new constitution" (3).