Khaled Hosseini

Our first lecture in the newest year's installment of the Guilford College series was Friday night: Khaled Hosseini, author of The Kite Runner and A Thousand Splendid Suns. The Afghanistan native and his family were relocated to Paris by the Afghan Foreign Ministry in 1976. In 1980, the family was to return to Afghanistan, but instead were granted asylum in the United States to flee the Soviet invasion. He then earned a medical degree and practiced medicien from 1996 to 2004. He had then fallen head first for his first love: writing. The Kite Runner was published in 2003 and thereafter made into a film; and A Thousand Splendid Suns published in 2007. He has since been named envoy to the United Nations Refugee Agency.

He spoke of his life, his books, and the process involved in publishing those books. Afghanistan was "old news" literary agents told him over The Kite Runner, the "headline" at the time was Iraq now. His books were the first to really showcase the Afghan people in a light other than terrorist, Taliban, refugees, or dealers in the narcotics trade. He spoke of current events in his native land, and the positives and negatives of a U.S. military presence there. The window of opportunity to save the country may be closing, he believes. But the Afghans are a fiercely independent nation. Once the U.S. is seen as an occupier and not a guest, all hope will be lost.

An intriguing insight into one man's view of his homeland and its place on the world stage. Fascinating.