Khaled Hosseini was born in Afghanistan, moved to Paris, and became a US citizen following the Russian invasion of his native country in 1980. His 2003 novel "The Kite Runner" was on The New York Times bestseller list for over a year. Hosseini's work tends to focus on family, violence, and the greater forces that shape personal lives. "The Kite Runner," about the life of a young Afghani refugee who must confront his traumatic childhood as an adult, was adapted into a movie in 2007. The movie rights have been bought to his second novel, "A Thousand Splendid Suns."
His third book, "And the Mountains Echoed" is due out in May of this year.