Khaled Hosseini was born and raised in Kabul, Afghanistan, the son of a diplomat whose family received political asylum in the United States in 1980.  He attended Santa Clara University and graduated from UC San Diego School of Medicine.  He now lives in Northern California, and is a physician.  The Kite Runner, published in 2003, is his first novel.  Khaled Hosseini’s next novel about Afghanistan, A Thousand Splendid Suns, will be available in May of 2007.