Khaled Hosseini was born in 1965 in Kabul, Afghanistan. His father was a diplomat for the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, and the family moved to France when Khaled was eleven years old. Not long after, they immigrated to the United States, and were granted political asylum. Hosseini writes that he had great difficulty assimilating into North American society, and worried about the friends and relatives he left behind in Afghanistan.
At his parents' insistence, Hosseini studied to be a doctor and practiced medicine for over a decade, until the success of his first book. The Kite Runner, published in 2003, was on the New York Times Bestseller list for over two years, and received...