Khaled Hosseini

Khaled Hosseini was born in Kabul, the eldest of five children. His father was a diplomat and his mother taught Persian at a girls' high school. In 1976 the family moved to Paris for his father's work. After the communist coup of 1978 and the Soviet invasion, they could not go home, and in 1980 they received asylum in the United States and settled in San Jose. He arrived at 15 and spoke no English.

He studied biology at Santa Clara University and medicine at the University of California, San Diego. He practiced internal medicine in California and wrote in the early mornings before work.

The Kite Runner (2003) follows Amir, a wealthy boy in Kabul who fails to defend his friend Hassan, the son of his father's servant. Years later, as an adult in California, he goes back to a Taliban-ruled Afghanistan to make amends. The novel became an international bestseller and a 2007 film, and Hosseini left medicine to write. His later books are A Thousand Splendid Suns (2007), And the Mountains Echoed (2013) and Sea Prayer (2018). He works as a goodwill envoy for UNHCR, the UN refugee agency, and runs a foundation for Afghan refugees.