Khaled Hosseini Biography

Khaled Hosseini was born on March 4, 1965 in Kabul, Afghanistan. His father was a diplomat who worked for the Afghan Foreign Ministry and his mother was a teacher at a girls' high school in Kabul. He spent his early years in Kabul until the age of five, when Hosseini and his family moved to Tehran, Iran, where his father worked for the Embassy of Afghanistan. They returned to Kabul in the historic year of 1973, when Afghanistan became a republic. Several months later, the former King of Afghanistan, Zahir Shah, was ousted from power in a bloodless coup that was orchestrated by Zahir's cousin, Daoud Khan. Hosseini's family moved again in 1976, when his father's work took him to Paris. After the communists seized control of the government and the Soviets occupied Afghanistan, the Hosseini family decided to seek political asylum in the United States instead of returning to Kabul as planned. They were allowed to move to San Jose, California, where Hosseini graduated from high school. He then attended Santa Clara University, where he earned a degree in biology.

After college, Hosseini decided to become a physician. He attended University of California-San Diego's School of Medicine, where he completed his M.D. in 1993. He then went on to serve his residency at the Cedars-Sinai hospital of Los Angeles and became an intern. Hosseini started writing The Kite Runner in 2001 when he was still a practicing physician. Parts of the novel are based on Hosseini's childhood in the neighborhood of Wazir Akbar Khan, and events in the story echo those in this life, but it is a fictional account. Hosseini published the novel in 2003 to critical acclaim. By May 2007, it had been published in thirty-eight countries, although not yet Afghanistan.

Hosseini's devotion to Afghanistan can be seen not only in his writing, but also in his activism. He has been a goodwill envoy to the United Nations Refugee Agency, UNHCR, since 2006 and his website contains links to many aid organizations that are helping Afghanistan.

Hosseini published his second novel, A Thousand Splendid Suns, in May 2007. Unlike The Kite Runner, which centers on relationships between men, this book focuses on those between women. In the months since its release, the novel has garnered positive reviews. Interviewers describe Hosseini as a smart, handsome man with a calming air about him. Some also consider him "almost certainly