THE KITE RUNNER VOTED 2008 READING GROUP BOOK OF THE YEAR FOR THE THIRD YEAR RUNNING

London, 14 August 2008: For the third year in a row, Khaled Hosseini’s novel, The Kite Runner, (Bloomsbury) has been voted as the Reading Group Book of the Year.

Hosseini’s popularity with reading groups continues as his second novel, One Thousand Splendid Suns, came in second.
Votes were collected via the Penguin and Orange websites and from reading groups entering the 2008 Penguin/Orange Broadband Readers’ Group Prize.
The top 10 favourite reading group books are:
1.

The Kite Runner
Khaled Hosseini
Bloomsbury
2
One Thousand Splendid Suns
Khaled Hosseini
Bloomsbury
3 joint
Old Filth - Jane Gardam, Chatto & Windus
The Island- Victoria Hislop, Headline
The Poisonwood Bible - Barbara Kingsolver, Faber
Small Island - Andrea Levy, Chatto & Windus
7
Suite Francaise - Irene Nemirovsky, Headline
8 joint
We need to talk about Kevin - Lionel Shriver - Serpents Tail

Salmon Fishing In The Yemen - Paul Torday - Orion
The Inheritance of Loss - Kiran Desai - Penguin

Author Khaled Hosseini said, "What a thrill it is for me, and indeed what a great honor, that The Kite Runner has been selected again as the Penguin/Orange Broadband Reading Group Book of the Year. The writing of this book was a labor of love for me. I grew quite attached to the characters and came to care for them in a most personal way.
“Sharing this book that means so much to me with readers in the UK has been gratifying to me beyond words. To that end, I am deeply grateful to reading groups across the UK for embracing The Kite Runner and for honoring it yet again with this wonderful award. I thank you for this award and for your ongoing support and encouragement. Tashakor, a thousand times.”

Nearly all of the female writers in the top ten were previously shortlisted or had won the Orange Broadband Prize for Fiction, illustrating the popularity and relevance of the Award amongst reading groups.
Janine Cook, Fiction Buyer for Waterstone's, commented, "It's no real surprise - The Kite Runner is still an absolute bestseller for us, and probably will be for years to come. This proves that it's not just a great book to read, but also a fantastic one to talk about, and it's that word of mouth approval that keeps it in the charts."