Khaled Hosseini

Khaled Hosseini is an Afghan and American novelist who trained and worked as a physician before writing full time, and who has also served as a goodwill ambassador for the United Nations refugee agency. His first novel, The Kite Runner, published in 2003, was a critical and commercial success, and his later novels have also reached the top of bestseller lists. He was born in Kabul, Afghanistan, to a diplomat father, and his family applied for asylum in the United States when he was fifteen. He did not return to Afghanistan until 2003, and his novels, partly set there, have spread awareness of Afghanistan's people and culture.