Hosseini, Khaled

Khaled Hosseini was born in Kabul, Afghanistan, as the oldest of five children. His mother was a teacher of history and Farsi at a girls' school in Kabul. The family moved to Paris in 1976 when his father was posted to the Afghan Embassy after having worked in Teheran. The family was due to return to Kabul in the 1980s, but the Soviet Union invaded Afghanistan and the family applied for political asylum in the United States. They settled in San José, California, and Hosseini enrolled at medical school in San Diego.