Khaled Hosseini

Khaled Hosseini is an Afghan-American novelist and former physician, born in Kabul, Afghanistan, in 1965. His family sought asylum in the United States in 1980, shortly after the Soviet invasion of Afghanistan. He earned a medical degree and practiced as an internist for over a decade before turning to full-time writing.

Hosseini rose to international fame with his debut novel, The Kite Runner (2003), a poignant story of friendship, betrayal, and redemption set against Afghanistan's turbulent history. The book became a global bestseller and was adapted into a film in 2007. His second novel, A Thousand Splendid Suns (2007), portrays the intertwined lives of two Afghan women bound by hardship and resilience. In 2013, he published And the Mountains Echoed, a multi-generational tale exploring family bonds across continents. He also wrote Sea Prayer (2018), a prose poem inspired by the Syrian refugee crisis.

A UNHCR Goodwill Ambassador since 2006, Hosseini founded the Khaled Hosseini Foundation to provide humanitarian aid to Afghan refugees. His works, translated into more than 70 languages, are celebrated for their emotional depth, vivid storytelling, and powerful depictions of Afghan culture and history.