Khaled Hosseini


Khaled Hosseini is an Afghan-American novelist and physician. After graduating from college, he worked as a doctor in California, a predicament that he likened to "an arranged marriage." He has published three novels, most notably his 2003 debut The Kite Runner, all of which are at least partially set in Afghanistan and feature an Afghan as the protagonist. Following the success of The Kite Runner he retired from medicine to write full-time.
Hosseini was born in Kabul, Afghanistan. His father worked as a diplomat, and when Hosseini was 11 years old, the family moved to France; four years later, they applied for asylum in the United States, where he later became a citizen. Hosseini did not return to Afghanistan until 2001 at the age of 36, where he "felt like a tourist in own country". In interviews about the experience, he admitted to sometimes feeling survivor's guilt for having been able to leave the country before the Soviet invasion and subsequent wars.
All three of his novels became bestsellers: The Kite Runner spent 101 weeks on The New York Times Best Seller list, four of them at number one. A Thousand Splendid Suns was a Times Best Seller for 103 weeks, 15 at number one. And the Mountains Echoed debuted near the top of the Times list and remained on it for 33 weeks until January 2014.

Early life and education

Early life

Hosseini was born on March 4, 1965 in Kabul, Afghanistan, the eldest of five children. His father, Nasser, worked as a diplomat for the Ministry of Foreign Affairs in Kabul while his mother worked as a Persian language teacher at a girls high school; both originate from Herat. Regarding his ethnicity, Hosseini stated, "I'm not pure anything... There's a Pashtun part of me, a Tajik part of me." His mother's family is believed to be from the Mohammadzai tribe of Pashtuns. Hosseini describes his upbringing as privileged. He spent eight years of his childhood in the middle class Wazir Akbar Khan neighborhood in Kabul. Hosseini does not recall his sister, Raya, ever suffering discrimination for being a female. Kabul itself was "a growing, thriving, cosmopolitan city" where he regularly flew kites with a number of cousins.
In 1970, Hosseini and his family moved to Iran where his father worked for the Embassy of Afghanistan in Tehran. In 1973, Hosseini's family returned to Kabul, and Hosseini's youngest brother was born in July of that year. In 1976, when Hosseini was 11 years old, his father secured a job in Paris, France, and moved the family there. They were unable to return to Afghanistan because of the April 1978 Saur Revolution in which the People's Democratic Party of Afghanistan seized power. In 1980, shortly after the start of the Soviet–Afghan War, they sought political asylum in the United States and made their residence in San Jose, California. Hosseini, then aged 15, did not speak English when he first arrived in the United States. He describes the experience as "a culture shock" and "very alienating".
Despite their distance from the country's turmoil, the family was aware of the situations faced by a number of their friends and relatives. Hosseini explained:

Education

Hosseini graduated from Independence High School in San Jose in 1984 and enrolled at Santa Clara University, where he earned a bachelor's degree in biology in 1988. The following year, he entered the University of California San Diego School of Medicine, where he earned his M.D. in 1993. He completed his residency in internal medicine at Cedars-Sinai Medical Center in Los Angeles in 1997. He practiced medicine for over ten years, until a year and a half after the release of The Kite Runner.

Career

Novels

In 2003, Hosseini released his first novel, The Kite Runner, the story of a young boy, Amir, struggling to establish a closer rapport with his father and coping with memories of a haunting childhood event. The novel is set in Afghanistan, from the fall of the monarchy until the collapse of the Taliban regime, and in the San Francisco Bay Area, specifically in Fremont, California. The novel was the number one best seller for 2005 in the United States, according to Nielsen BookScan. The Kite Runner was also produced as an audiobook read by the author. The Kite Runner has been adapted into a film of the same name released in December 2007. Hosseini made a cameo appearance towards the end of the movie as a bystander when Amir buys a kite which he later flies with Sohrab.
Hosseini's second novel, A Thousand Splendid Suns, was published in 2007, and is also set in Afghanistan. The story addresses many of the same issues as Hosseini's first, but takes a more feminine perspective. It follows the story of two women, Mariam and Laila, whose lives become entwined. The story is set during Afghanistan's tumultuous thirty-year transition from Soviet occupation to Taliban control and post-Taliban rebuilding. The novel was released by Riverhead Books on May 22, 2007, at the same time as the Simon & Schuster audiobook. Movie rights have been acquired by producer Scott Rudin and Columbia Pictures.
Hosseini's third novel And the Mountains Echoed was released on May 21, 2013. Prior to its release, Hosseini said:

United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees

Hosseini is currently a Goodwill Envoy for the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees. He has been working to provide humanitarian assistance in Afghanistan through the Khaled Hosseini Foundation. The concept for the foundation was inspired by the trip to Afghanistan that Hosseini made in 2007 with UNHCR.

Influences

When Khaled Hosseini was a child, he read a great deal of Persian poetry, especially the poems of Sufis such as Rumi, Omar Khayyám, Abdul-Qādir Bēdil, Hafez and others. He also cites a Persian translation of Jack London's White Fang as a key influence on his youthful imagination, as well as Persian translations of novels ranging from Alice in Wonderland to Mickey Spillane's Mike Hammer series. He has cited Afghan singer Ahmad Zahir as a key musical influence. He chose songs by Ahmad Zahir as his two Inheritance Tracks for BBC Radio 4's Saturday Live, Madar and Aye Padesha Khuban and two for WNYC's Soundcheck show. On Saturday Live he called Ahmad Zahir "the Afghan Elvis" and said his music is "one of the seminal memories of my time in Afghanistan".

Personal life

Hosseini is married to Roya Hosseini. The couple have two children, Haris and Farah. Haris, a competitive speaker, has finaled twice at the national level in Original Oratory, placing third at the 2018 NSDA National Championship and first at the 2019 NSDA National Champion. He lives in Northern California with his family. He is fluent in English as well as his native Dari-Persian and Pashto. Haris now attends Columbia University in New York.

Awards

Exclusive Books Boeke Prize
British Book Awards
Book Sense Book of the Year Awards
California Book Award Silver Medal
Goodreads Choice Award