Author Special: Khaled Hosseini

I have always loved his writings. It has a power of having an impact on you that will last forever. His books make you think and give the message you will never forget. The way he writes, leaves you in such an emotional state that you need some time to cope with it. I mean it in a good way. His books are not just books they’re feelings you connect with. I never have enough words to review his books.

I know he is a well known author but this is just me showing my gratitude for his work. He is the only author I have given Must Read recommendations on my blog and 5 star rating on Goodreads for three consecutive books. It was his The Kite Runner that made me fall in love with reading.

About Khaled Hosseini

Khaled Hosseini was born in 1965 in Kabul, Afghanistan, where his father was an Afghani diplomat and his mother a teacher. In 1980, the family requested and were granted political asylum in the United States, and moved to San Jose, California. Educated as a doctor, Hosseini earned a bachelor’s degree in biology from Santa Clara University and earned a medical degree from the University of California, San Diego, School of Medicine. He was a practicing internist between 1996 and 2004, and became a full-time author after the success of his first book. His first novel, The Kite Runner, was an international bestseller sold in more than 70 countries and adapted into an award-nominated film. Currently a resident of northern California, Hosseini is a Goodwill Envoy for the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees.

Despite being a wonderful writer and an amazing human being.

His Books

1. The Kite Runner (2003)

Movie? Yes (2007)

Amir is the son of a wealthy Kabul merchant, a member of the ruling caste of Pashtuns. Hassan, his servant and constant companion, is a Hazara, a despised and impoverished caste. Their uncommon bond is torn by Amir’s choice to abandon his friend amidst the increasing ethnic, religious, and political tensions of the dying years of the Afghan monarchy, wrenching them far apart. But so strong is the bond between the two boys that Amir journeys back to a distant world, to try to right past wrongs against the only true friend he ever had.

The unforgettable, heartbreaking story of the unlikely friendship between a wealthy boy and the son of his father’s servant, The Kite Runner is a beautifully crafted novel set in a country that is in the process of being destroyed. It is about the power of reading, the price of betrayal, and the possibility of redemption; and an exploration of the power of fathers over sons—their love, their sacrifices, their lies.

2. A thousand Splendid Suns (2007)

Movie? No

A Thousand Splendid Suns is a breathtaking story set against the volatile events of Afghanistan’s last thirty years—from the Soviet invasion to the reign of the Taliban to post-Taliban rebuilding—that puts the violence, fear, hope, and faith of this country in intimate, human terms. It is a tale of two generations of characters brought jarringly together by the tragic sweep of war, where personal lives—the struggle to survive, raise a family, find happiness—are inextricable from the history playing out around them.

3. And the mountains echoed (2013)

Movie? No

So, then. You want a story and I will tell you one…Afghanistan, 1952. Abdullah and his sister Pari live with their father and stepmother in the small village of Shadbagh. Their father, Saboor, is constantly in search of work and they struggle together through poverty and brutal winters. To Abdullah, Pari – as beautiful and sweet-natured as the fairy for which she was named – is everything. More like a parent than a brother, Abdullah will do anything for her, even trading his only pair of shoes for a feather for her treasured collection. Each night they sleep together in their cot, their heads touching, their limbs tangled. One day the siblings journey across the desert to Kabul with their father. Pari and Abdullah have no sense of the fate that awaits them there, for the event which unfolds will tear their lives apart; sometimes a finger must be cut to save the hand. Crossing generations and continents, moving from Kabul, to Paris, to San Francisco, to the Greek island of Tinos, with profound wisdom, depth, insight and compassion, Khaled Hosseini writes about the bonds that define us and shape our lives, the ways in which we help our loved ones in need, how the choices we make resonate through history and how we are often surprised by the people closest to us.

4. Sea Prayer (2018)

Movie? No

A short, powerful, illustrated book written by Khaled Hosseini in response to the current refugee crisis, Sea Prayer is composed in the form of a letter, from a father to his son, on the eve of their journey. Watching over his sleeping son, the father reflects on the dangerous sea-crossing that lies before them. It is also a vivid portrait of their life in Homs, Syria, before the war, and of that city’s swift transformation from a home into a deadly war zone.

Impelled to write this story by the haunting image of young Alan Kurdi, the three-year-old Syrian boy whose body washed upon the beach in Turkey in September 2015.

I have read the first three books by him but haven’t got the chance to read the fourth and the latest one yet but I’m sure it’s also as touching as the other three.

Here, I copied the summaries from Goodreads but I just feel this doesn’t quite capture the essence of the book so do click on the name heads and read my version of the summary and the review of these books.

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