Khaled Hosseini

Khaled Hosseini or Khalid Husseini (Template:IPAc-en; Pashto/Persian: {{#invoke:Lang|lang}}, {{#invoke:IPA|main}}; born March 4, 1965) is an Afghan-American novelist, UNHCR goodwill ambassador, and former physician.<ref>Bilal ibn Rasheed The not-so-curious case of Khaled Hosseini Template:Webarchive. Jang Group of Newspapers</ref><ref>Template:Cite news</ref> His debut novel The Kite Runner (2003) was a critical and commercial success; the book and his subsequent novels have all been at least partially set in Afghanistan and have featured an Afghan as the protagonist. Hosseini's novels have spread awareness about Afghanistan's people and culture.<ref>{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }}</ref>

Hosseini was briefly a resident of Iran and France after being born in Kabul, Afghanistan, to a diplomat father. When Hosseini was 15, his family applied for asylum in the United States, where he later became a naturalized citizen. Hosseini did not return to Afghanistan until 2003<ref>Template:Cite magazine</ref> when he was 38, an experience similar to that of the protagonist in The Kite Runner. In later interviews, Hosseini acknowledged that he suffered from survivor's guilt for having been able to leave the country prior to the Soviet invasion and subsequent wars.

After graduating from college, Hosseini worked as a physician in California, a situation he likened to "an arranged marriage".<ref name="dmiller">Template:Cite news</ref> The success of The Kite Runner meant he was able to retire from medicine in order to write full-time. His three novels have all reached various levels of critical and commercial success.<ref>{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }}</ref> The Kite Runner spent 101 weeks on The New York Times Best Seller list, including three weeks at number one.<ref>Template:Cite news</ref> His second novel, A Thousand Splendid Suns (2007), spent 103 weeks on the chart, including 15 at number one<ref>Template:Cite news</ref><ref>Template:Cite news</ref> while his third novel, And the Mountains Echoed (2013), remained on the chart for 33 weeks.<ref>Dallas Morning News archive Template:Webarchive. Retrieved February 11, 2015.</ref><ref>New York Times Best Seller list, January 12, 2014. Retrieved February 11, 2015.</ref> In addition to writing, Hosseini has advocated for the support of refugees, including establishing with the UNHCR the Khaled Hosseini Foundation to support Afghan refugees returning to Afghanistan.<ref name=":0">{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }}</ref>

Early life and education

Early life

Hosseini was born on March 4, 1965, in Kabul, Afghanistan, the eldest of five children.<ref name="AAA">{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }}</ref> 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.<ref name="AAA"/> Regarding his ethnicity, Hosseini stated, "I'm not pure anything. There's a Pashtun part of me, a Tajik part of me."<ref name="Tranter">Template:Cite news</ref> His mother's family is believed to be from the Mohammadzai tribe of Pashtuns.<ref name="RRZ">Template:Cite news</ref> Hosseini describes his upbringing as privileged. He spent eight years of his childhood in the upper class Wazir Akbar Khan neighborhood in Kabul.<ref name="AAA"/><ref name="Tranter"/><ref name="Young">Template:Cite news</ref> Hosseini does not recall his sister, Raya, ever suffering discrimination for being a female,<ref name="Young"/> and he remembers Kabul as "a growing, thriving, cosmopolitan city", where he regularly flew kites with his cousins.<ref name="RFERL">Template:Cite news</ref>

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.<ref name="Hoby">Template:Cite news</ref> They were unable to return to Afghanistan because of the April 1978 Saur Revolution in which the People's Democratic Party of Afghanistan (PDPA) 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.<ref>{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }}</ref><ref>{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }}</ref> When Hosseini initially came to the United States, he was fifteen years old and could not speak English. He describes the experience as "a culture shock" and "very alienating".<ref name="Hoby" />

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:

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Education and medical career

Hosseini graduated from Independence High School in San Jose in 1984 and enrolled at Santa Clara University, where he graduated with a bachelor's degree in biology in 1988. The following year, he enrolled in the University of California, San Diego School of Medicine, where he graduated with his M.D. in 1993. In 1997, he finished his internal medicine residency at Los Angeles' Cedars-Sinai Medical Centre. Up to a year and a half after The Kite Runner's publication, he spent more than ten years practicing medicine.

Career

Novels

File:George and Laura Bush with Khaled Hosseini in 2007.jpg

Hosseini with President George W Bush and First lady Laura Bush

File:Hosseini, Khaled (with actors).jpg

Khaled Hosseini with actors from The Kite Runner, Bahram and Elham Ehsas

In 2003, Hosseini published his first novel, The Kite Runner, the story of a young boy, Amir, struggling to form a deeper connection with his father and coping with memories of a traumatic childhood event. The novel is set in Afghanistan, from the fall of the monarchy until the collapse of the Taliban regime, as well as in the San Francisco Bay Area, specifically in Fremont, California. The novel was the best selling novel of 2005 in the United States, according to Nielsen BookScan.<ref>{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }}</ref> The author read the audio version of The Kite Runner as well. 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 purchases a kite which he, then, flies with Sohrab.

Afghanistan is the setting for Hosseini's second book, A Thousand Splendid Suns, which was released in 2007. The story addresses many of the same issues as Hosseini's first book, but from a female perspective. It tells the tale of two women, Mariam and Laila, whose lives become intertwined after Mariam's husband marries Laila. 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. The adaptation rights of the novel were subsequently acquired by producer Scott Rudin and Columbia Pictures.<ref>Template:Cite news</ref>

Hosseini's third novel And the Mountains Echoed was released on May 21, 2013. Prior to its release, Hosseini said:

I am forever drawn to family as a recurring central theme of my writing. My earlier novels were at heart tales of fatherhood and motherhood. My new novel is a multi-generational family story as well, this time revolving around brothers and sisters, and the ways in which they love, wound, betray, honor, and sacrifice for each other."<ref>Template:Cite journal</ref>{{#if:|

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UNHCR

Hosseini is currently a Goodwill Envoy for the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR).<ref>{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }}</ref> He has been working with the Khaled Hosseini Foundation to deliver humanitarian aid in Afghanistan. The concept for the foundation was inspired by the trip to Afghanistan that Hosseini made in 2007 with UNHCR, with the organisation raising funds to build homes for refugees returning to Afghanistan.<ref name=":0" />

Sea Prayer, an illustrated short story by Hosseini that was released in 2018, was motivated by the drowning of three-year-old Alan Kurdi, a refugee who was trying to get to Europe from Syria. Proceeds from sales went to the UNHCR and the Khaled Hosseini Foundation.<ref name=":0" />

Influences

As a child, Hosseini read a lot of Persian poetry, especially the works of poets such as Rumi, Omar Khayyám, Abdul-Qādir Bēdil, and Hafez. He has also cited a Persian translation of Jack London's White Fang as a key influence from his youth, in addition to translations of novels including Alice in Wonderland and Mickey Spillane's Mike Hammer series.<ref>And the Mountains Echoed Q&A with Khaled Hosseini Template:Webarchive page 2 khaledhosseinifoundation.org</ref><ref>(June 6, 2013) Khaled Hosseini: By the Book nytimes.com</ref> He has cited Afghan singer Ahmad Zahir as a key musical influence, choosing the songs "Madar" and "Aye Padesha Khuban" as his two Inheritance Tracks during an appearance on BBC Radio 4's Saturday Live, and naming Zahir as "the Afghan Elvis" and stating his music was "one of the seminal memories of my time in Afghanistan".<ref>Terry Deary, Khaled Hosseini and Mr Mitchell Saturday Live - October 26, 2013, bbc.co.uk</ref><ref>{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }}</ref><ref>(May 23, 2013) Pick Three: Khaled Hosseini Template:Webarchive soundcheck.wnyc.org</ref>

Personal life

Hosseini is married to Roya, and they have two children. The family reside in Northern California. He is fluent in Persian and Pashto, and has described himself as a secular Muslim.<ref>{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }}</ref><ref>{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }}</ref><ref>About our Executive Team Template:Webarchive The Khaled Hosseini Foundation</ref> In July 2022, Hosseini announced via social media that his 21-year-old child had come out as transgender.<ref>{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }}</ref><ref>{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }}</ref>

Bibliography

• The Kite Runner (2003)
• A Thousand Splendid Suns (2007)
• And the Mountains Echoed (2013)
• Sea Prayer (2018)

Awards and honors

In 2008, Hosseini received the Golden Plate Award of the American Academy of Achievement.<ref>{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }}</ref><ref>{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }}</ref>

In 2014, Hosseini received the John Steinbeck Award from the Martha Heasley Cox Center for Steinbeck Studies at San Jose State University.<ref>{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }}</ref>

Awards for Hosseini's writing

Year	Text	Award	Result	Ref.
2004	The Kite Runner	Exclusive Books Boeke Prize	Winner	<ref>Exclusive Books Boeke Prize Winners – Goodreads</ref>
2007	A Thousand Splendid Suns	California Book Award for Fiction	Silver Medal	<ref>California Book Award Silver Medal Winners Goodreads</ref>
2008		British Book Award for Richard & Judy Best Read of the Year	Winner	<ref>Rowling honoured at book awards Template:Webarchive BBC News</ref><ref>{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation	CitationClass=web }}</ref>
		Book Sense Book of the Year Award for Adult Fiction	Winner	<ref>Book Sense Book of the Year Award Winners Goodreads</ref><ref>{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation	CitationClass=web }}</ref>
2013	And the Mountains Echoed	Goodreads Choice Award for Fiction	Winner	<ref>CHOICE AWARDS 2013 Goodreads</ref>
2015		DSC Prize for South Asian Literature	Longlist	citation	CitationClass=web }}</ref><ref>{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation	CitationClass=web }}</ref>

See also

• List of best-selling fiction authors

External links

• Template:Official website
• Official website of The Khaled Hosseini Foundation
• Template:C-SPAN
• Template:Charlie Rose view
• Khaled Hosseini Template:Webarchive at Bloomsbury Publishing
• "The Kite Runner Author Returns Home, Lev Grossman, Time, May 17, 2007