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Amir is born.
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Hassan is born.
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Hassan gets surgery for his cleft lip from Baba for his 10th birthday.
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Amir and Hassan win the kit running competition. Hassan gets raped by Assef and Amir sees it happen but runs away.
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Amir has a party for his 13th birthday party. Assef gets him a biography on Hitler. Rahim Kahn tells Amir about a Hazara girl that he wanted to marry when he was younger who got sent away once his family found out.
Amir plants his new watch and some money under Hassan's mattress and accuses him of stealing. Ali and Hassan leave even after Baba says he forgives Hassan. -
The Russians invade Afghanistan and Baba and Amir leave. Baba stops the rape of a stranger on their journey. Baba and Amir see Kamal and his father, and find out that Kamal was raped.
Once they get to Jalalabad, the truck driver Karim tells them that they can't go any further due to the engine breaking a weeks ago. They stay in a basement with rats for two weeks before being given the opportunity to be taken to Pakistan by a fuel truck. Kamal dies by inhaling too many fumes, and his father shoots himself in the head with Karim's gun in his grief. -
Amir graduates high school and Baba throws a party at the bar.
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Baba buys an old VW van and they start travelling to the flea markets on a Sunday to sell things. Amir meets Soroya.
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Baba finds out he has terminal lung cancer but refuses treatment for it. Amir asks Baba to ask General Taheri for Soroya's hand in marriage.
Soroya calls Amir to tell him about her past relationship when she ran away and lived with another man for nearly a month in Virginia Amir admits that it bothers him but he still wants to marry Soroya. -
Due to Baba dying, Amir and Soroya plan their wedding very quickly. Baba spends nearly all of his life savings on the wedding. Whilst Amir and Soroya are looking at each other in a mirror during the ceremony, Amir wonders if Hassan ever married.
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Soroya moves in with Amir and Baba to help look after Baba. Due to Baba refusing treatment, he dies in his sleep.
Amir doesn't learn about Soroya's family until they are already married but he learns that General Taheri feels that working is below him and keeps his family on welfare. He does not allow Jamila (Soroya's mother) to sing in public even though she used to be a great singer. Soroya tells Amir that when her father came to take her home during the 'scandal' he brought a gun, to shoot her partner and himself if she refused to go home. -
Amir gets his first novel published. Soroya and Amir start trying to have a baby before they find out that Soroya is sterile. They decide to not adopt due to General Taheri not liking the idea of adoption.
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Rahim Kahn calls Amir from Pakistan and asks him to go back and visit because Rahim Kahn is very ill.