When a body is starving for sugar, ketones take over and help breakdown the next best source of energy: stored fat. The body produces ketones during starvation or fasting and also during long bouts of physical training. When your muscles are sore after strenuous exercise - ketones cause the pain.
Khaled Hosseini published The Kite Runner in 2003. By the end of 2005, it was a bestseller in the United States. It seemed readers couldn't get enough Hosseini's story about the troubled friendship between two Afghan boys.
On this level, it provides a good way for people to learn more about Afghan history and culture in the context of story. Looking at The Kite Runner as a story about culture, however, misses what the book is really about. This is a novel about humanity.