Khaled Hosseini was born into a relatively well off family in Kabul, Afghanistan on March 4, 1965 and is the oldest of five children. Both of his parents were well educated and literate. His mother was a teacher of Farsi and history and his father worked for the Afghan Foreign Ministry as a diplomat. His family lived in an affluent part of Kabul called the Wazir Akbar Khan district where men and women shared considerably more equality than in other parts of Afghanistan. Hosseini and his family moved to Paris in 1976 for his father's work. They had initially planned on returning to Kabul in 1980, however due to political unrest they instead sought political asylum in the United States. They were granted political asylum, and relocated to San Jose, California in September of 1980 to begin their new life. It would be 27 years before Hosseini returned to his home country. He was 15 years old when they came to the US, and Hosseini spoke very little English. Over the next few years his English improved substantially, and he began to write short stories in English along with his studies. Hosseini remained in California after graduating high school and did his undergraduate studies at Santa Clara University. In 1988 he graduated with a degree in biology and then continued on to medical school in the University of California-San Diego. He graduated in 1993 and then completed his residency in Los Angeles at Cedars-Senai Hospital. From 1996 to 2004 Hosseini practiced medicine full time. Although Hosseini began to write recreationally at a very young age, it was in 2001 that he began to write his first actual novel Kite Runner. The novel was not immediately well known, but it gained acclaim over the next year and a half. In fact, it became an international best seller and has been published in 48 different countries. His second novel, A Thousand Splendid Suns, was published in 2007 and has been published in 40 different countries. As of right now, Hosseini has put his medical career on hold in order to write full time and to do humanitarian work. Much of his time is also spent with his wife and two children. He has created his own humanitarian foundation called the Khaled Hosseini Foundation, and it works towards promoting and assisting in the higher education of women and children as well as providing Afghani refugees with shelter.
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Sources:
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Hosseini, Khaled. "Biography." Khaled Hosseini. AuthorBytes.com, 2009. Web. 29 Sept. 2010
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"Khaled Hosseini: Tapestry of Friendship, Redemption and Hope." Academy of Achievement. American Academy of Achievement, 24 Sept. 2008. Web. 29 Sept. 2010.
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