Author to be featured in Mount Union talk

Staff report

Alliance

Khaled Hosseini, author of “The Kite Runner” and “A Thousand Splendid Suns,” will be featured at the Schooler Lecture at the University of Mount Union at 8 p.m. Oct. 27 in the McPherson Academic and Athletic Complex.

The lecture will be a moderated discussion led by Doug Hendel, professor of theatre at Mount Union. Hosseini is a native of Afghanistan.

Complimentary tickets are available by leaving a message on the Schooler Lecture ticket line at 330-829-6120 or fby illing out a ticket form at www.mountunion.edu/schooler_lecture.

Hosseini, a native of Kabul, Afghanistan, earned a bachelor’s degree in biology from Santa Clara University in 1988 and a medical degree from University of California-San Diego’s School of Medicine in 1993. He completed his residency at Cedars-Sinai Hospital in Los Angeles and was a practicing internist from 1996 through 2004. While in medical practice, he began writing his first novel, “The Kite Runner,” in March 2001.

“The Kite Runner” is about the unlikely friendship of two boys growing up together in Kabul, Afghanistan. Amir is the son of a wealthy man, whereas Hassan is the son of Amir’s father’s servant and a member of a shunned ethnic minority.

“A Thousand Splendid Suns” is told through the voices of two courageous Muslim women who are swept up in the social and political turmoil happening throughout Afghanistan.

Hosseini was named a U.S. envoy to UNHCR, the United Nations Refugee Agency in 2006. In 2007, he founded The Khaled Hosseini Foundation to provide assistance to the people of Afghanistan and help alleviate suffering and build healthy communities.