The Kite Runner-background knowledge

I admit I kind of waited to even do the background knowledge until I finished the entire book. I honestly had no idea what this book was about until I got into it, and I MUST say this was by far my favorite! It was hard for me to read though; I had to read just a bit at a time so I could digest it before I would continue. It was like a terrible addiction for me.Every night I would read it, I would sit on my bed and give my sister a summary of what I read because the book made me so emotional! It's kinda pathetic, but I would re-read most chapters before continuing and therefor it took me three weeks to finish it. Nevertheless, I did finish it. Now the background info.
I decided while researching to research the Afghanistan revolution and was somewhat disappointed. Yes I learned that the revolution started in 1978 and went on for 24 years; I learned all about the PDPA, but nothing I read online had the level of emotion the book did. So then I realized that the book took place during the Afghanistan revolution but it wasn't really about it. I then decided to research the author's life in hopes of finding something interesting. I assumed that no writer was good enough to write that kind of raw emotion without having experienced it. As far as I could tell, I was wrong. Khaled Hosseni only witnessed the first part of the revolution and was relocated to France and then moved to America for the rest of his life. He lived more the Afghan-American side of the story. Yet, I am still convinced he must have really made a big mistake in his life to fully understand guilt as described in his book. The pain he described, the torment was so accurate I could not help but feel it as well. But no more of that... I feel that is all the reader really needs to know to begin the book.