Khaled Hosseini

"I thought it completely outlandish and unattainable, the idea of becoming a writer," Khaled Hosseini told TIME magazine in 2008. Despite the huge success of his debut novel, The Kite Runner (2003), Hosseini was hesitant to give up his career as a medical doctor. But then "when I started seeing people at airports reading my book, and when my patients would come in to visit me, more out of a sense of getting a book signed than getting their diabetes treated, I started to see the writing on the wall." Based on his memories of his childhood in pre-Soviet Afghanistan, The Kite Runner sold more than 18 million copies worldwide and was adapted into a critically acclaimed film. His later novels, A Thousand Splendid Suns (2007) and And the Mountains Echoed (2013), were also bestsellers. In 2006 Hosseini was named a goodwill ambassador to the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR). He later launched The Khaled Hosseini Foundation, which provides assistance to the people of Afghanistan. His latest book, Sea Prayer, is set for release in September 2018. Updated 2018