Khaled Hosseini

Khaled Hosseini is speaking live with Book Passage’s Elaine Petrocelli, Saturday, April 18, 2020
In March 2001, while practicing medicine, Khaled Hosseini began writing his first novel, The Kite Runner, which was published by Riverhead Books in 2003. That debut went on to launch one of the biggest literary careers of our time. Today, Khaled is one of the most recognized and bestselling authors in the world. His books, The Kite Runner, A Thousand Splendid Suns, and And the Mountains Echoed, have been published in over seventy countries and sold more than 40 million copies worldwide.
In 2006 Khaled was appointed a Goodwill Ambassador for UNHCR, the UN Refugee Agency. Inspired by a trip he made to Afghanistan with the UNHCR, he later established The Khaled Hosseini Foundation, a nonprofit, which provides humanitarian assistance to the people of Afghanistan. He lives in Northern California with his wife and two children.

In 2003, Khaled released his first novel, The Kite Runner, the story of a young boy, Amir, struggling to establish a closer rapport with his father and coping with memories of a haunting childhood event. The novel is set in Afghanistan, from the fall of the monarchy until the collapse of the Taliban regime, and in the San Francisco Bay Area, specifically in Fremont, California. The novel was the number one best seller for 2005 in the United States, according to Nielsen BookScan. The Kite Runner was also produced as an audiobook read by the author. The Kite Runner has been adapted into a film of the same name released in December 2007. Khaled made a cameo appearance towards the end of the movie as a bystander when Amir buys a kite which he later flies with Sohrab.
Khaled’s second novel, A Thousand Splendid Suns, was published in 2007, and is also set in Afghanistan. The story addresses many of the same issues as his first, but takes a more feminine perspective. It follows the story of two women, Mariam and Laila, whose lives become entwined. 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. Movie rights have been acquired by producer Scott Rudin and Columbia Pictures.
Khaled’s third novel And the Mountains Echoed was released on May 21, 2013.

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A personal note from Khaled Hosseini. 

Sent April 19th, following his Conversations with Authors session.

Friends,

It was a great pleasure to speak to all of you and I hope you enjoyed the chat with the wonderful Elaine Petrocelli. 

Thank you for tuning in from all over the world and thank you for your kind and supportive messages. Though social isolation has proved onerous on many of us, books, unsurprisingly, can be a great balm for the sense of detachment we are all feeling.  To that end, I list below some books that I hope will challenge, entertain, and provide you companionship through these difficult days.  Looking forward to the days of open bookstores and to perusing the aisles again for hidden literary gems,

In the meantime:

• Sum, by David Eagleman
• The Namesake, by Jhumpa Lahiri
• Seven Brief Lessons on Physics, by Carlo Rovelli.
• All the Names They Used for God, By Anjali Sachdeva
• Richard II, by William Shakespeare

Take care of yourselves and your loved ones.

–Khaled