A House for Mr Biswas

A House for Mr Biswas is a 1961 novel by V. S. Naipaul, significant as Naipaul's first work to achieve acclaim worldwide. It is the story of Mr Mohun Biswas, an Indo-Trinidadian who continually strives for success and mostly fails, who marries into the Tulsi family only to find himself dominated by it, and who finally sets the goal of owning his own house.

Drawing some elements from the life of Naipaul's father, the work is primarily a sharply-drawn look at life in a fledgling postcolonial world.

Naipaul’s father, Seepersad, is the prototype forMr. Biswas. Both the real man and the fictional Biswas were born in a village; lived with wealthy relatives; worked as a sign painter; married into a conservative, well-to-do Hindu family; held a series of jobs; and wandered from home to home. LikeMohun Biswas, Seepersad Naipaul found work on a newspaper after moving to Port of Spain.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/A_House_for_Mr._Biswas

The Kite Runner

The Kite Runner is an extraordinary novel by American author Khaled Hosseini. Published in 2003, it is Hosseini's first novel. The Kite Runner tells the story of Amir, a boy from the Wazir Akbar Khan district of Kabul, who is haunted by the guilt of betraying his childhood friend Hassan, the son of his father's Hazara servant. The story is set against a backdrop of tumultuous events, from the fall of the monarchy in Afghanistan through the Soviet invasion, the mass exodus of refugees to Pakistan and the United States, and the Taliban regime.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Kite_Runner

A Movie by the same name, is a 2007 Academy Award-nominated and directed by Marc Forster.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Kite_Runner_(film)