Khaled Hosseini Biography

Khaled Hosseini was born March 4, 1965, in Kabul, Afghanistan, and spent his boyhood there with his siblings and parents: his mother, a high school teacher, and his father, a diplomat. During that time, the family enjoyed prosperity in a peaceful Afghanistan. In 1976, Hosseini and his family moved to Paris, France, where his father received a new post at the Afghan embassy. The family expected to remain in Paris for only four years, the duration of his father’s assignment, and then to return to Afghanistan. However, they found that returning to their country would be too dangerous after it was invaded by the Soviet Union in 1979. Thus, the family applied for and was granted political asylum by the United States. In 1980, they moved to San Jose, California.

After graduating from Santa Clara University with a degree in biology, Hosseini studied medicine at the University of California, San Diego. He graduated in 1993 with a specialization in internal medicine. He was a practicing physician until 2004, shortly after The Kite Runner was published.

Khaled Hosseini was born in Kabul, Afghanistan, in 1965. His father was a diplomat with the Afghan Foreign Ministry, and his mother was a teacher. The family was living in Paris in 1980 when the Russians occupied Afghanistan, and they were granted political asylum in the United States. They moved to California, where Hosseini graduated from high school and later earned a degree in biology from Santa Clara University in 1988. In 1993, Hosseini graduated from the University of California, San Diego, with a degree in medicine. He practiced medicine as an internist until 2004.

In his free time, Hosseini began to write. His first novel, The Kite Runner (2004), was an immediate success, eventually becoming an international bestseller. Now published in forty-three languages, The Kite Runner tells the story of the friendship between two boys who grow up in Afghanistan in the same house but under extremely different circumstances. One is the son of a wealthy man; the other is the son of one of the house servants. Their lives reflect the tragedies of Afghanistan as the country changes from monarchal to Taliban rule.

In 2006, Hosseini was named a goodwill envoy to the United Nations Refugee Agency. He helps refugees not just from Afghanistan but from all over the world. Some of his most recent work has been in Chad. In May 2007, Hosseini published his second novel, A Thousand Splendid Suns. Today, Hosseini lives with his wife and two children in northern California.