Author:Hosseini was born in Kabul, Afghanistan, in 1965. In 1970 Hosseini and his family moved to Iran where his father worked for the Embassy of Afghanistan in Tehran. In 1973 Hosseini's family returned to Kabul, and Hosseini's youngest brother was born in July of that year.
In 1976, when Hosseini was 11 years old, Hosseini's father obtained a job in Paris, France, and moved the family there. They were unable to return to Afghanistan because of the Saur Revolution in which the PDPA communist party seized power through a bloody coup in April 1978. Instead, a year after the Soviet invasion of Afghanistan, in 1980 they sought political asylum in the United States and made their residence in San Jose, California. Hosseini graduated from Independence High School in San Jose in 1984 and enrolled at Santa Clara University, where he earned a bachelor's degree in biology in 1988. The following year, he entered the University of California, San Diego, School of Medicine, where he earned his M.D. in 1993. He completed his residency in internal medicine at Cedars-Sinai Medical Center in Los Angeles in 1996. He practiced medicine for over ten years, until a year and a half after the release of The Kite Runner. Hosseini is currently a Goodwill Envoy for the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR). He has been working to provide humanitarian assistance in Afghanistan through the Khaled Hosseini Foundation. The concept for the foundation was inspired by the trip to Afghanistan that Hosseini made in 2007 with UNHCR. He lives in Northern California with his wife, Roya, and their two children (Harris and Farah). |
My Review about the book
A Thousand Splendid Suns by Khaled Hosseini is the second novel I have read, his first novel The Kite Runner was a master piece which made me very interested in his second novel. A Thousand Splendid Suns is written from an omniscient third person point of view, telling the story of two different women living in Kabul. Hosseini use of different elements makes the novel every interesting to the reader, as they have to make connections between various events that have taken place and why? Also, telling the story from a women perspective was a unique way to show a different view of Afghanistan rather than through a boy’s point of view in The Kite Runner. Furthermore, knowing the novel is told from a woman I thought of a fantasy fairy tale concept which turns out to be totally opposite a sadly accurate version of how difficult Afghan women life are. Hosseini underlines many themes in the novel like, oppression and hope, inner strength of women, education of women, marriage versus true love, and female bonds. A particular theme that is intriguing in the novel is the inner strength of women. This theme is shown in various parts of the novel, as to how Afghan women handle harsh situation with the ongoing of war. The women are trapped inside their own home they find ways to enjoy life and find happiness in little things. Overall, this novel is one of Hosseini’s best work as it covers a wide variety of issues and increases the readers knowledge about Afghanistan.