When drunk drivers hit and kill Ali’s parents, Baba’s father takes in the orphaned Ali as a servant in Baba’s house. Although Baba becomes attached to Ali, said to have wandered the house crying when sick with polio, Amir reflects that “[...] in none of his stories did Baba ever refer to Ali as his friend. The curious thing was, I never thought of Hassan and me as friends either” (22) 

Hassan is illiterate but loves words, so Amir reads to him often, especially from the tenth-century Persian epic the Shahnamah, which is Hassan’s favorite. Hassan’s favorite story from the collection is the epic tale of Rostam and Sohrab, a tragedy in which Rostam unknowingly and fatally wounds his own son Sohrab in battle. When Amir begins to make up his own story while reading the Shahnamah, Hassan tells him that it is the best story Amir has read to him “in a long time” (26). This response fills Amir with the confidence to write his own short story, which he reads to Baba and Rahim Khan as they drink and smoke in Baba’s study.