What other novels or stories can be compared to The Kite Runner?

For me, The Breadwinner by Deborah Ellis reminded me a lot of The Kite Runner. While it is written for a younger audience, it still deals with the injustices wrought by the Taliban and a child's desire to do right by their family despite these circumstances. As it is also set in Afghanistan, the scenery and descriptions of the cultural and physical landscape are also similar.

Another book to consider is The Inheritance of Loss by Kiran Desai. Like The Kite Runner, this book deals with the dangers that come with an insurgency and a family's struggle to maintain a sense of normalcy amidst the chaos around them. The father and son relationship between the judge and Biju also has a number of parallels between that of Baba and Amir.

Finally, I would recommend you take a look at The Space Between Us by Thrity Umrigar. This book examines the close relationship between two people from very different social classes. Just as Amir and Hassan form a close friendship that is in many ways defined by their separate social backgrounds, the main characters in this novel, Sera and Bhima, are trapped within the confines of their different castes.

For me, the theme of friendship and loyalty is a vital one from Hosseini's work.  I think that I see this theme in a couple of other works and contrasting the views presented on this theme could be interesting. One of these works was the subject of a question some time back.  Steinbeck's Of Mice and Men is a great conception of friendship to contrast with The Kite Runner. How does friendship look in both?  What does it mean to stand up for your friend?  How does loyalty look in both works?  I think that this is one area of interest because it looks so different in both.  Amir goes back to "become good again," while George will never be able to do this at the end of the work.  I think that the examination of which friendship represents more qualities of a "good friendship" is something that can brought out from both works.

Another work that immediately reminds me of the concept of friendship is the King short story, "Rita Hayworth and the Shawshank Redemption."  Here again, I think that the definition of what makes a good friendship is evident.  I like how King was able to construct the reality of how the worst of conditions can forge the best of friendships.  The presence of contingency does not take away from universality.  This is something very important that he conveys and something that makes very good points of contrast with Amir and Hassan and George and Lennie.  In all three of these works, the development of thematic concept of friendship is something that emerges.

Can you relate The Kite Runner to another book you've read?

To answer your question I would continue the list of themes and topics from the previous post, and then see where there are connections to novels and a plays you have already read.  Some additional themes to consider:

1.  redemption

2.  bullying/ good vs. evil

3.  friendship

4.  social class distinction -- effect on relationship

5.  America as a land of (new) opportunity

6.  mental/physical survival of a crisis

7.  suicide/attempted suicide

The list could go on, but the next step is to look for those elements in other novels.  Just having the theme in common is a start, then you need to determine if the authors are making a similar point.  With a little brainstorming, you may discover that what at first seemed like a stretch, actually works for the comparative purposes.  For example, The Great Gatsby is about several of the topics listed above -- what can be done with the commonalities? 

The Kite Runner shares several similarities with Elie Wiesel's Holocaust memoir Night.  Both feature tense father-son relationships, displacement, and narrators who are quite honest about their faults and their sometimes self-centered motives.

In regards to the important role that competitive friendships play in The Kite Runner, John Knowles novel, A Separate Peace, is also a good comparative work.  In Peace, the narrator Gene wants to be friends with Finny (his roommate and the most popular boy at Devon School), but he is also jealous of Finny's charm, just as Amir is jealous of the attention that Baba bestows upon Hassan.  Likewise, Hassan and Finny are both athletic and easy-going, while Amir and Gene are introverts who doubt their physical prowess.  The most significant similarity is that both narrators--Amir and Gene--betray their "best" friends.  Gene's betrayal actually leads to Finny's death.  But even with those betrayals, the betrayed--Hassan and Finny--demonstrate the remarkable power to forgive.