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Khaled Hosseini

Goodreads Author

Born

in Kabul, Afghanistan

March 04, 1965

Website

http://www.khaledhosseini.com/

Genre

Literature & Fiction

Member Since

April 2012

URL

https://www.goodreads.com/khaledhosseini

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Hosseini was born in Kabul, Afghanistan, in 1965. In 1970 Hosseini and his family moved to Iran where his father worked for the Embassy of Afghanistan in Tehran. In 1973 Hosseini's family returned to Kabul, and Hosseini's youngest brother was born in July of that year.
In 1976, when Hosseini was 11 years old, Hosseini's father obtained a job in Paris, France, and moved the family there. They were unable to return to Afghanistan because of the Saur Revolution in which the PDPA communist party seized power through a bloody coup in April 1978. Instead, a year after the Soviet invasion of Afghanistan, in 1980 they sought political asylum in the United States and made their residence in San Jose, California.
Hosseini graduated from Independence Hi ...more

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Popular Answered Questions

How much daily reading do you do? How much is reading important to a writer?

Khaled Hosseini I read daily, Armando, not so much for the benefit of my writing, but because I am addicted to it. There is nothing in the world for me that compares …moreI read daily, Armando, not so much for the benefit of my writing, but because I am addicted to it. There is nothing in the world for me that compares to being lost in a really good novel. That said, reading is an absolute must if you want to write. It is a trite enough thing to say, but very true nonetheless. I cannot understand aspiring writers who email me for advice and freely admit that they read very little. I have learned something from every writer I have ever read. Sometimes I have done so consciously, picking up something about how to frame a scene, or seeing a new possibility with regards to structure, or interesting ways to write dialogue. Other times, I think, my collective reading experience affects my sensibilities and informs me in ways that I am not quite aware of, but in real ways that impact how I approach writing. The short of it is, as an aspiring writer, there is nothing as damaging to your credibility as saying that you don’t like to read.(less)

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Given that you lived a big part of your life away from Afghanistan, How did you learn about the pains and the experiences of Afghans? Don't you think maybe because you did not live those pains that you wrote about Afghanistan in a way different from how an Afghan who lived there would write? Regardless of your response I love your books....

Khaled Hosseini I read a lot, watched documentaries, spoke to people. I will give you a example, about the writing of A Thousand Splendid Suns. In March of 2003, I we…moreI read a lot, watched documentaries, spoke to people. I will give you a example, about the writing of A Thousand Splendid Suns. In March of 2003, I went back to Kabul for the first time after a twenty-seven year absence. In Kabul, I spoke to traffic cops, NGO workers, teachers, doctors, nurses, bodyguards, women on the street. Everyone had a story to tell. I heard stories about women who had been raped, beaten, imprisoned, humiliated, women who had seen their husbands blown to pieces, seen their kids starve to death. It was then that I saw the devastating effect that anarchy and extremism had had on these women. I saw for myself, for the first time, the enormity of the suffering that these women had endured. And I came away humbled by the fight that these women had in them, by their resilience and their courage.

So though it is true that I have not actually lived in Afghanistan in a very long time, when I sat down to write A Thousand Splendid Suns, early in 2004, I kept hearing those women’s voices in my head, I keep seeing their faces. And so I think that to a large degree, that book was inspired and formed by the collective hardships, struggles, by the collective hopes and dreams of those women I met and spoke to.(less)

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Khaled Hosseini’s books

Average rating: 4.35 · 5,243,242 ratings · 220,770 reviews · 45 distinct works • Similar authors

	The Kite Runner 4.34 avg rating — 3,188,894 ratings — published 2003 — 20 editions	Error rating book. Refresh and try again. Rate this book Clear rating 1 of 5 stars 2 of 5 stars 3 of 5 stars 4 of 5 stars 5 of 5 stars
	A Thousand Splendid Suns 4.44 avg rating — 1,556,447 ratings — published 2007 — 366 editions	Error rating book. Refresh and try again. Rate this book Clear rating 1 of 5 stars 2 of 5 stars 3 of 5 stars 4 of 5 stars 5 of 5 stars
	And the Mountains Echoed 4.07 avg rating — 375,764 ratings — published 2012 — 230 editions	Error rating book. Refresh and try again. Rate this book Clear rating 1 of 5 stars 2 of 5 stars 3 of 5 stars 4 of 5 stars 5 of 5 stars
	Sea Prayer 4.10 avg rating — 57,235 ratings — published 2018 — 63 editions	Error rating book. Refresh and try again. Rate this book Clear rating 1 of 5 stars 2 of 5 stars 3 of 5 stars 4 of 5 stars 5 of 5 stars
	The Kite Runner: Graphic Novel by Khaled Hosseini (Goodreads Author), Fabio Celoni (Illustrator), Mirka Andolfo (Illustrator) 4.45 avg rating — 21,899 ratings — published 2011 — 28 editions	Error rating book. Refresh and try again. Rate this book Clear rating 1 of 5 stars 2 of 5 stars 3 of 5 stars 4 of 5 stars 5 of 5 stars
	The Kite Runner & A Thousand Splendid Suns 4.51 avg rating — 4,619 ratings — published 2008 — 12 editions	Error rating book. Refresh and try again. Rate this book Clear rating 1 of 5 stars 2 of 5 stars 3 of 5 stars 4 of 5 stars 5 of 5 stars
	And the Mountains Echoed Free Preview 4.26 avg rating — 2,325 ratings — 3 editions	Error rating book. Refresh and try again. Rate this book Clear rating 1 of 5 stars 2 of 5 stars 3 of 5 stars 4 of 5 stars 5 of 5 stars
	The Complete Khaled Hosseini Box Set 4.52 avg rating — 319 ratings — published 2015 — 8 editions	Error rating book. Refresh and try again. Rate this book Clear rating 1 of 5 stars 2 of 5 stars 3 of 5 stars 4 of 5 stars 5 of 5 stars
	I cieli di Kabul: Interviste by Khaled Hosseini (Goodreads Author), Barbara D'Andò (Translator), Chiara De Luca (Translator) 3.68 avg rating — 157 ratings — published 2007	Error rating book. Refresh and try again. Rate this book Clear rating 1 of 5 stars 2 of 5 stars 3 of 5 stars 4 of 5 stars 5 of 5 stars
	By Khaled Hosseini Mil soles esplendidos (1?¦ ed., 1?¦ imp.) 4.68 avg rating — 63 ratings	Error rating book. Refresh and try again. Rate this book Clear rating 1 of 5 stars 2 of 5 stars 3 of 5 stars 4 of 5 stars 5 of 5 stars

More books by Khaled Hosseini…

10 posts
Khaled Hosseini's Blog

Literacy of the Heart

I am pleased to announce that I will be in conversation with poet and teacher Yogacharya Ellen Grace O'Brian on March 29, 2017 at Kepler's Books in Menlo Park at 7:30 pm.

The times we live in require us to develop a "literacy of the heart"- a deeper quality of listening, discerning, and connecting heart to heart and soul to soul. Literature itself, both poetry and prose, plays a timeless role in a Read more of this blog post »

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Published on March 13, 2017 18:31

View all 10 posts »

Related News

Interview with Khaled Hosseini

The storyteller behind The Kite Runner returns with a large cast of characters in an emotional new novel, And the Mountains Echoed, set in...

Polls

Please vote for the book you'd like to read as a group in March 2010

Little Bee by Chris Cleave

13 votes, 17.6%

Kafka on the Shore by Haruki Murakami

9 votes, 12.2%

Shutter Island by Dennis Lehane

8 votes, 10.8%

The Historian by Elizabeth Kostova

7 votes, 9.5%

The Kite Runner by Khaled Hosseini

5 votes, 6.8%

A Reliable Wife by Robert Goolrick

5 votes, 6.8%

The Children's Book by A.S. Byatt

4 votes, 5.4%

Three Weeks with My Brother by Nicholas Sparks

4 votes, 5.4%

The Secret Scripture by Sebastian Barry

3 votes, 4.1%

Siddhartha by Hermann Hesse

3 votes, 4.1%

Into the Wild by Jon Krakauer

2 votes, 2.7%

The Grapes of Wrath by John Steinbeck

2 votes, 2.7%

The Joy Luck Club by Amy Tan

2 votes, 2.7%

The Fountainhead by Ayn Rand

2 votes, 2.7%

Out Stealing Horses by Per Petterson

2 votes, 2.7%

The Caller by Alex Barclay

1 vote, 1.4%

Half Broke Horses by Jeannette Walls

1 vote, 1.4%

Fear Nothing by Dean Koontz

1 vote, 1.4%

Fireproof by Raj Kamal Jha

0 votes, 0.0%

74 total votes

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Khaled’s Friend Comments

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Comments (showing 1-11) post a comment »

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message 11: by Hossein

Dec 02, 2019 08:06PM

thanks for proving my request, its such an honor, i'm eager to read your next book

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message 10: by Ziznase

Dec 02, 2019 04:21PM

merhaba.
teşekkür ederim arkadaşlık için.
saygılar

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message 9: by David

Jul 20, 2018 07:39PM

I cannot wait to read your new book, 'Sea Prayer', Khaled. I enjoyed your last three.

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message 8: by Koustubh

Jan 16, 2017 03:33PM

Thank you sir for ur friendship here on goodreads. I am looking forward for ur books, which are like i am staying in Afghanistan and witnessing the things which i read in ur books.

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message 7: by Alisha ‘Priti’ (last edited Jan 03, 2018 12:39AM)

Dec 26, 2016 12:16AM

Dear Mr Hosseini,
I have been writing for 34 years but lacked the courage to pen and publish a full length paperback novel. When I read The Kite Runner, I was awestruck at the guileless beauty of your work. I knew that this was the kind of book I wanted to write, a book that touches the core of the heart and stays there like an eternal flame. I just wanted you to know that your writing has been my inspiration and till I could muster up even half that emotion, I kept my words in limbo. They slipped away sometimes as short stories but then the true tale could wait no more. Thank you for the gift of a book that will stay with me forever. I hope you get a chance to read 'Out With Lanterns'.
Best regards,
Alisha Priti Kirpalani

Out With Lanterns by Alisha 'Priti' Kirpalani

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message 6: by Dana

Jun 29, 2015 05:31PM

Your touching words were on the list "38 Beautifully Heartbreaking Quotes From Literature" !
38. “There are a lot of children in Afghanistan, but little childhood.”
—Khaled Hosseini, The Kite Runner
Via raherrod789

http://www.buzzfeed.com/staceygrant/i...

I hope you see it :)
Sincere fan of all your beautiful stories

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message 5: by Peta

Dec 24, 2014 02:04PM

The words in your books are like music to my ears.

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message 4: by Stephen

Sep 24, 2014 07:57AM

Khaled,
We are both bay area physicians and writers. I am a huge fan and admirer of your work. My book, "Behind the Gates of Gomorrah, a Year with the Criminally Insane" is out this week from Simon and Schuster. It's about my first year as a psychiatrist at Napa State Hospital. I had hit a dull patch in the first draft of the ms. I read all three of your books in a week and suddenly everything was clear on how the ms should finish. It did and it sold. Thanks. All my best, Stephen Seager

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message 3: by Prasenjit

Mar 12, 2014 07:38AM