Hosseini signs with Transatlantic Agency

Novelist Khaled Hosseini will be represented by the US-based Transatlantic Agency for international rights, the company has confirmed today (Wednesday, 7th September).

The author, whose novels include The Kite Runner and A Thousand Splendid Suns (Bloomsbury), will be officially represented by agent Samantha Haywood.

“Khaled Hosseini’s masterful novels are arguably more necessary and important than ever before," said Haywood. "I am thrilled and honoured to be working with Khaled to help bring new generations of readers from around the world to his impactful stories and unforgettable characters. Khaled’s novels truly exemplify the power of reading and literature to help us understand and hopefully change the world for the better page by page."

According to Nielsen figures, Hosseini has sold 4.1 million books for £30.4m, with The Kite Runner his bestseller on 1.2 million copies sold in paperback.

He was born in Kabul, Afghanistan, in 1965. His father was a diplomat in the Afghan Foreign Ministry and his mother taught Farsi and history at a high school in the Afghan capital. In 1976, the Foreign Ministry relocated the Hosseini family to Paris.

They were ready to return to Kabul in 1980, but the communist coup and invasion of the Soviet Army meant they sought and were granted political asylum in the United States, where they settled in San Jose, California. 

Hosseini graduated from high school 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 a medical degree in 1993. He completed his residency at Cedars-Sinai Medical Center in Los Angeles and was an internist between 1996 and 2004.

While practising medicine, he began writing his first novel, The Kite Runner, which was published by Riverhead Books in 2003. The debut was adapted for film and  grossed over $73 million in box office sales. It was named Book of the Decade by the Times, Daily Telegraph and the Guardian, and was adapted for the stage and is currently running on Broadway, as of July 2022.

In 2006 he was appointed a Goodwill Ambassador for UNHCR, the UN Refugee Agency. Inspired by a trip he made to Afghanistan with the UNHCR, he later established The Khaled Hosseini Foundation, a non-profit organisation which provides humanitarian assistance.