Khaled Hosseini

Biography

  • Born on March 4th, 1965, in Kabul, Afghanistan
  • He was a doctor & worked as an internist before he became a full-time writer
    • He switched career paths due to the high praise of his first book The Kite Runner
  • Went to Santa Clara University where he studied biology 
  • In 1989 he began attending medical school at the University of California

Writing Pieces

  • The Kite Runner (2003)
    • Hosseini began working in 2001 on The Kite Runner, writing at 4 AM before heading to his medical practice
    • Borders Original Voice Award, the San Francisco Chronicle Best Book of the Year Award, and the South African Boeke Prize.
  • A Thousand Splendid Suns (2007)
  • And the Mountains Echoed (2013)
  • Sea Prayer (2018)

Awards

Exclusive Books Boeke Prize

  • 2004 : The Kite Runner

British Book Awards

Book Sense Book of the Year Awards

  • 2008: A Thousand Splendid Suns for Adult Fiction

California Book Award Silver Medal

  • 2007: A Thousand Splendid Suns for Fiction

Goodreads Choice Award

Writing Tips

  • Read  and Write Daily 
  • He doesn’t plan 
    • Feels too boxed in
  • Write in quiet spaces
    • Take 2-3 minute breaks
    • Try to get 2-3 pages done a day
  • Feels productive if he has at least 3 good sentences
  • Write about what gets under your skin, what keeps you up at night and what you want to read. 

Writing Styles

  • Prose
    • Flowy, airy
  • Middle East 
    • A Thousand Splendid Suns & The Kite Runner takes place in Afghanistan 
  • Often deals with themes like war, love, acceptance.
  • Setting 
    • As if it were a character
  • Imagery

Quote

All quotes are from the novel A Thousand Splendid Suns:

“Laila examined Mariam’s drooping cheeks, the eyelids that sagged in tired folds, the deep lines that framed her mouth-she saw these things as though she too were looking at someone for the first time. And, for the first time, it was not an adversary’s face Laila saw but a face of grievances unspoken, burdens gone unprotested, a destiny submitted to and endured.” 

 

Analysis

  • Springboard effect with commas
  • Underlying theme of endured
  • Shows the mind of Laila and her thoughts

Emulation Quotes

“ Maybe it was senseless to want to be near a person so badly here in a country where bullets had shredded her own brothers to pieces.” 

“Like a compass needle that points north, a man’s accusing finger always finds a woman. Always.” 

“And yet she was leaving the world as a woman who had loved and been loved back. She was leaving it as a friend, a companion, a guardian. A mother. A person of consequence at last. No. It was not so bad, Mariam thought, that she should die this way. Not so bad. This was a legitimate end to a life of illegitimate beginnings.”

“First, the trees-those that hadn’t yet been cut down for firewood-shed their spotty yellow-and-copper leaves. Then came the winds, cold and raw, ripping through the city. They tore off the last of the clinging leaves, and left the trees looking ghostly against the muted brown of the hills.” 

Emulation of Quote

Maybe it was senseless to have butterflies with just one look at him and his messy brown hair. Maybe it was senseless to smile every single time I thought of him. Maybe it was senseless to let those walls I built up to the clouds to crumble when he was near. But since when was life the most logical thing in the world? Since when was love a calculated formula you could put in a calculator and get the answer? Since when was it normal to inhale warmth and exhale cliches? Since never. And I am definitely okay with that.

Final Thoughts

He used beautiful imagery which I want to incorporate into my own writing.

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