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Biography
(Survey of Novels and Novellas)
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.
(The entire section is 659 words.)