The Kite Runner, Playhouse Theatre

Prepare to be transported to Kabul this summer as Khaled Hosseini's novel The Kite Runner, the story of Afghan conflict and enduring friendship, returns to the London stage at the Playhouse Theatre after an acclaimed West End run at Wyndham's.

Since bursting on to bestseller lists back in 2003, The Kite Runner captured the public's imagination to become the kind of book talked about at dinner parties, and which friends urged you to read and think about long after the final page had been turned. More than 31.5 million copies were sold, and the story has been translated into 60 languages.

Ten years later, in a coup for regional drama, Liverpool Everyman and Nottingham Playhouse acquired the stage rights – and delivered an adaptation greeted with the kind of rave reviews that made London theatre-goers seethe.

Now that 2013 hit, produced by Giles Croft, is back in London, with small screen star Ben Turner (Casualty, Dr Who) as the narrator and central character Amir. The book really has made for captivating live performance, packed with drama and described by its creator as a tale that 'transcends its cultural setting, its geographic parameters, and speaks about universal human experiences'.

If you somehow missed the ecstatic response to the novel first time around, all you need to know is that it is, at heart, a story of friendship and family. Set in Afghanistan, on the cusp of conflict, it begins with two boys at a kite-flying tournament. From the peaceful, prosperous Kabul of the 1970s, the story spans Soviet invasion, emigration to America and Taliban terrorism. An intimate, touching story of huge global relevance.