Khaled Hosseini is an Afghan-born American novelist and physician. After graduating from college, he worked as a doctor in California, an occupation that he likens to "an arranged marriage" for him. He has published three novels, most notably his 2003 debut The Kite Runner, all of which are at least partially set in Afghanistan and feature an Afghani as the protagonist. Following the success of The Kite Runner, he decided to stop practicing medicine and became a full-time writer. Hosseini was born in Kabul, Afghanistan. His father worked as a diplomat, and when Hosseini was 11 years old, the family moved to France; four years later, they applied for asylum in the United States, where he later became a citizen. Hosseini did not return to Afghanistan until 2003 at the age of 38, where he "felt like a tourist in [his] own country". In interviews about the experience, he admitted to sometimes feeling survivor's guilt for having been able to leave the country before the Soviet invasion and subsequent wars. All three of his novels became bestsellers, with The Kite Runner spending 101 weeks on the bestseller list as a paperback. 

March 4th, 1965 in Kabul (Age 59)