Afghani-born author Khaled Hosseini spent much of his
youth in Afghanistan and neighboring Iran. He was born in Kabul and spent most of his
life there and in Tehran, Iran before his family moved to Paris in 1976. The son of an
Afghan diplomat, Hosseini understood the politics of the region and became a learned
student of Afghan and Persian literature. Although he witnessed the Russian takeover of
his native country from France and, later, California, he had first-hand knowledge of
the situation through his father's dealings.
Hosseini
became friends with a Hazari teacher while living in Iran, and this relationship helped
him greatly when he wrote about this persecuted ethnic group in his first novel,
The Kite Runner. The fact that The Kite
Runner was the very first novel ever written by an Afghan native in English
testifies to Hosseini's unique position to write about the events of his native land.
The novel was also one of the first to explore the events of the 9/11 attacks on
American soil.
This perspective carried over to A
Thousand Splendid Suns. Perhaps no two novels of fiction have ever given
Americans a truer view of life and the political strife that ravaged his homeland. Both
novels serve as guidebooks to late 20th century life in Afghanistan, and the author
continues to serve his country as an ambassador for the United Nations High Commissioner
for Refugees (UNHCR), an organization that helps refugees who have been forced to flee
from their native countries.
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