Khaled Hosseini, the Afghan-American author, is known for his amazing works, such as ‘The Kite Runner’ and ‘A Thousand Splendid Suns,’ books that tell the stories of Afghanistan, its beauty, culture, sufferings, war, and more.
Khaled Hosseini became one of my favorite authors after I finished reading The Kite Runner. His storytelling takes you to a different world where you experience everything he is narrating.
Hi! I am Priyanka from Hooked to Books, and today I will talk about Khaled Hosseini, the author loved by many.
If you are a Khaled Hosseini fan and want to know more about his early life and writing journey, then stay with me throughout!
I am excited to write about my favorite author! Are you eager to learn about his life? Then let’s get started, shall we?
Khaled’s Early Life: Family, School, and College
Khaled Hosseini was born in 1965 in Kabul, Afghanistan. He has four siblings and is the eldest among the lot. He lived in Kabul, where his father worked at the foreign ministry, and his mother used to teach Persian literature in a high school.
In 1976, Khaled’s father was assigned to a post at the Afghan embassy in Paris, and the whole family moved to France.
In 1980, the family was ready to move back to Kabul, but unfortunately, by that time, their homeland had faced severe attacks, witnessed a communist coup, and invasion of the Soviet Army.
So, their hope of returning home was shattered.
With no other option left, they applied for political asylum in the United States and, after the grant, moved to San Jose, California, in September 1980, when Khaled was 15 years old.
Initially, Hosseini struggled with English, but he quickly grasped the language.
He graduated from high school in 1984 and received a bachelor’s degree in biology in 1988 from Santa Clara University. He earned a medical degree from the University of California, San Diego in 1993.
He completed his residency at a medical center in Los Angeles and began practicing in 1996.
Khaled and his wife, Roya, live in California and have two children, Haris and Farah.
How Khaled Hosseini Became a Writer?
Khaled Hosseini is a well-known American writer. But what inspired him to write a book?
As a child, Hosseini was influenced by Persian literature and enjoyed reading novels. Hosseini used to write short stories throughout his college life.
It was the springtime in 1999 when Khaled was watching the news on television, and it talked about the Taliban and their impositions on Afghan people. Among the list, he heard that the sport of kite flying was banned.
This struck something personal within Hoessini as he grew up flying kites with his cousins and friends in Kabul. So, he instantly started writing a short story about two boys flying kites in Kabul, and the 25-page story turned into a dark, realistic tale.
He wrote the short story, kept it somewhere, and forgot about it. And that was it.
A few years later, to be more precise, in March 2001, Hosseini found the short story in his garage. He decided to expand the story into a novel, and that’s when he began his journey of writing a book.
As a doctor by profession, Khaled used to wake up at 4 in the morning to work on the novel and later continued his daily tasks of treating patients. He completed the story of two Aghani boys and how they separated due to the calamities of war and where their lives took them.
Khaled’s debut novel, The Kite Runner, was published by Riverhead Books, a division of Penguin Group, in 2003.
Initially, the sales were slow, but soon, readers around the world found this incredible book, and the sales increased. For more than two years, The Kite Runner was on the New York Times Best Seller list and had again returned to the list after a couple of years.
In March 2003, he went to Kabul, Afghanistan, and saw the aftermath of the war times and heard the struggle stories of women before, during, and after the war.
Within a couple of years, he began writing his second book focused on Afghani women and their hardships, and in 2007, A Thousand Splendid Suns was published.
His third book, And the Mountains Echoed, was published in 2013.
This excellent writer has touched the hearts of millions through his beautiful writing and storytelling. His books evoke several emotions within the readers and make them feel joy, pain, grief, and love through the words.
Wind-Up
Khaled Hosseini is an amazing writer, and he is known worldwide for his books. His first book hit the New York Times bestseller list and stayed there for years.
I love his books and recommend them to everyone. I hope this article on Khaled Hosseini was an interesting read and you learned more about the author.
Have you read Khaled Hosseini’s books? Share your views about the author in the comments below.