:00:00. > :00:00.state visits and Trooping the Colour. Now on BBC News, in this
:00:00. > :00:00.week's Talking Books Khaled Hosseini talks to Razia Iqbal about how his
:00:00. > :00:28.relationship with his homeland has changed and when he felt he became a
:00:29. > :00:35.writer. On Talking Books, I will be talking to Khaled Hosseini. He was
:00:36. > :00:45.born in Afghanistan. His books have sold millions of copies, including
:00:46. > :00:56.his best-known book the Kite Runner. Khaled Hosseini, welcome to Talking
:00:57. > :01:06.Books. Afghanistan informs most of your work. Your first few books were
:01:07. > :01:11.set in Afghanistan. You explored the emotional development of characters
:01:12. > :01:22.when they leave the country. GEC yourself as an American writer or
:01:23. > :01:32.innocent Afghan writer? -- or an Afgan writer. I don't know. I just
:01:33. > :01:38.write books. In Afghanistan, there are novelists, but traditionally it
:01:39. > :01:45.is not the main avenue of literature. Typically, it is poetry
:01:46. > :01:51.and people express themselves through poetry. There is not a rich
:01:52. > :02:02.tradition of novel writing. In that sense, it is American. Kite Runner
:02:03. > :02:12.It's a coming of age story. That's what makes it more American. But it
:02:13. > :02:17.does have Afghan themes. It has that in its approach to life. That is an
:02:18. > :02:25.interesting question though. Let me ask you about the Kite Runner.
:02:26. > :02:37.Extent 100 weeks on the New York Times bestseller list. You wrote it
:02:38. > :02:48.when you were practising doctor. -- practising as a doctor. Why did you
:02:49. > :02:54.write it? I felt that I had to raise it. I was completely immersed in the
:02:55. > :03:02.world of the two boys. It became a compulsion. I had to see it through.
:03:03. > :03:06.I had no idea how it was going to go and Howell was going to end. I would
:03:07. > :03:11.go to bed at night and look forward to getting up in the morning to see
:03:12. > :03:20.what would happen. I never plan my books. I find it out as I write. I
:03:21. > :03:26.spent 15 months writing the book in the early morning before work and it
:03:27. > :03:31.was a special time. You say you didn't plan any of it out. That is
:03:32. > :03:36.intriguing for people who are interested in the process of writing
:03:37. > :03:41.and what takes to write a novel. A lot of people aspire to that. Were
:03:42. > :03:50.you thinking that you wanted to be a storyteller? Did you think you have
:03:51. > :03:58.the pulse of the storyteller in new? -- in you? I entertained the idea,
:03:59. > :04:05.but I never thought that I would be a published author. From the time
:04:06. > :04:10.that I was eight years old, I would write stories and tell them to my
:04:11. > :04:14.siblings and cousins. Had a compulsion to create. I can't
:04:15. > :04:25.remember a time when I didn't feel that way. The Kite Runner was a
:04:26. > :04:35.soaring success. A film was made of the story. It is the story of
:04:36. > :04:44.siblings and also servants. The two boys come from different places. One
:04:45. > :04:50.of them is despised by the majority. The story has a sense of betrayal.
:04:51. > :04:55.One boy feels that he has let the other down. There is a pivotal
:04:56. > :05:01.moment in the book where there is a brutal and violent attack. It has
:05:02. > :05:05.that event that cascades throughout the whole story and there is guilt
:05:06. > :05:08.that the boy feels when he leaves Afghanistan. Can you say something
:05:09. > :05:23.about why you felt that need to have the character redeem himself?
:05:24. > :05:31.He goes to America and thinks about what he should have done. He is an
:05:32. > :05:37.interesting character because he behaved in very narcissistic and
:05:38. > :05:43.deplorable ways. He was troubled as a boy. He was on unsteady moral
:05:44. > :05:53.ground. That is the opposite to the other boy, who is rooted in goodness
:05:54. > :05:59.and integrity. But he has flaws in South,
:06:00. > :06:13.-- floors and self doubt. Guilt is guilt as a powerful agent. It is a
:06:14. > :06:19.motor that propels him to overcome his own shortcomings as a person and
:06:20. > :06:24.overcome his own weaknesses. He goes on a crazy quest and he searches for
:06:25. > :06:31.a lost relatives and also he is really searching for a better
:06:32. > :06:38.incarnation of himself. It is out there somewhere in his birthplace.
:06:39. > :06:45.You think that is a role that section can play for people, that
:06:46. > :06:52.they can be guided in this way? That was not my intention. One of the
:06:53. > :06:56.things that I have received letters about from readers all over the
:06:57. > :07:03.world is that people write to me and say, I used to be kids in school. I
:07:04. > :07:10.never fully understood the impact of my own behaviour. This book made me
:07:11. > :07:14.think. I will also receive letters from people telling me that they
:07:15. > :07:25.were pushed around at school. This book reflected my experience. I was
:07:26. > :07:30.brutalised and taken advantage of. Children feature heavily in your
:07:31. > :07:36.book and the relationship between children and parents. Family is a
:07:37. > :07:46.very fruitful territory for you. I am thinking about your third novel
:07:47. > :07:53.with And the Mountains Echoed, where two siblings are separated. It
:07:54. > :08:02.sprawls decades, and the impact of it is felt. It is such an incredible
:08:03. > :08:06.relationship are we as apparent is simultaneously love and hold our
:08:07. > :08:17.children to be the dearest things in the world and how we off on other
:08:18. > :08:23.ones inflicting the most lifelong wounds upon them without meaning to.
:08:24. > :08:29.That is a conflicting impulse, and that is interesting to me. It makes
:08:30. > :08:38.for very good dramatic clay to mould something from. Did that become more
:08:39. > :08:47.acute for you when you became a father? Can you talk more about your
:08:48. > :08:50.personal story. You left Afghanistan and went to the United States. You
:08:51. > :09:04.lived in Paris when your father was a diplomat. Can you
:09:05. > :09:10.talk about that now? I did not have the same relationship with my father
:09:11. > :09:16.as he did with his father. He was somebody that I looked up to and
:09:17. > :09:22.loved very dearly. He was also somebody who was widely respected.
:09:23. > :09:27.He walked into a room, and he wasn't a big man physically, but he
:09:28. > :09:32.commanded a certain level of respect. There was a gravitas around
:09:33. > :09:41.him because he was so tat that to his principles and so uncompromising
:09:42. > :09:51.with them. -- tethered to his principles. He was like that all the
:09:52. > :09:57.way to his deathbed. His approval was important to me. I wanted him to
:09:58. > :10:02.be proud of me and pleased with me and he was. Having experienced that
:10:03. > :10:07.with my father, the thing that he didn't understand was that he had
:10:08. > :10:10.lost his father when he was two. He understood the part of being the
:10:11. > :10:19.father, but he didn't understand what it was like to be a son. I feel
:10:20. > :10:23.like I have experienced both. I can bring the benefit of that experience
:10:24. > :10:31.into the relationship with my own children and remember what it is
:10:32. > :10:36.like to be somebodyson. This theme of identity runs through your work
:10:37. > :10:38.very profoundly and the notion of identity when they were removed from
:10:39. > :10:49.your roots and taken away from what is familiar with you. The Kite
:10:50. > :10:52.Runner, Amir feels more That he has a relationship with his father that
:10:53. > :10:57.he didn't have when he lived in Afghanistan. There is a sense of not
:10:58. > :11:00.being known in America and there is a sense of not being known in
:11:01. > :11:10.America and theories and yes in the isolation of that. The same thing
:11:11. > :11:15.happens with another carrot. She says, you don't know how lucky you
:11:16. > :11:24.are that you know where you are from. That is the universal impulse.
:11:25. > :11:29.They are driving past the hospital in this chapter, and one child says
:11:30. > :11:36.that they know where they were born. The other child, whose past is in
:11:37. > :11:43.the shadows, so that that is very lucky. Her past is a mystery to her.
:11:44. > :11:48.Roots are important. You are not just defined by your individual
:11:49. > :11:55.persona, and who your parrots, but to your grandparent and
:11:56. > :11:59.great-grandparents are. It is that ancestry and a sense of belonging to
:12:00. > :12:03.tradition and lineage that is so central to your identity to help
:12:04. > :12:10.people understand and view you, that to lose that, you know, and to have
:12:11. > :12:17.that interrupted, it is a really traumatic experience. I know it was
:12:18. > :12:21.for my parents. They came to the states, and it was the great
:12:22. > :12:27.equaliser. Reinvention is painful. It is difficult. My parents
:12:28. > :12:32.reinvented themselves, largely so that we would reap the benefits of
:12:33. > :12:46.that reinvention. The overarching theme of And the
:12:47. > :12:51.Mountains Echoed is to do with Afghanistan's relationship with the
:12:52. > :12:56.wider world. Many of your books are about this country's battered
:12:57. > :13:02.history over 30, 35 years. Communist revolution, Soviet invasion, Civil
:13:03. > :13:06.War, ethnic rivalry and atrocity and Islamic tyranny in the form of the
:13:07. > :13:14.Taliban. I wondered whether you could say a little bit about two
:13:15. > :13:24.minor characters. The doctor, Idris. And Timor, who came back to lay
:13:25. > :13:28.claim to be parents house. While a minor character, he embodies
:13:29. > :13:34.something central to the book, this tension between belonging,
:13:35. > :13:41.remembering your country, feeling that you want to stay connected
:13:42. > :13:45.first of all, is EU? Parts of him are very much me. In fact, not the
:13:46. > :13:52.storyline and what actually happened and what he ends of doing but
:13:53. > :13:57.certainly his complicated relationship with his own ancestry,
:13:58. > :14:04.going back home, is essentially what I felt when I went to Afghanistan to
:14:05. > :14:12.the first time in 2003 after being constantly seven years. I had that
:14:13. > :14:17.tension that you feel when you had a great sense of homecoming in that I
:14:18. > :14:22.belong to bear. It was where I was born and I spoke the language. I
:14:23. > :14:27.would hear snippets of music on the street and remember the song. I
:14:28. > :14:38.could smell food and they would remember 1975. -- I would. If I
:14:39. > :14:41.looked at what was going on around me, I would see its sea of people
:14:42. > :14:46.who had experienced something in which I had no part. My life has
:14:47. > :14:51.been so drastically different from theirs that for me to see myself as
:14:52. > :14:59.one of them was a disingenuous at best. It was self-serving and
:15:00. > :15:05.hypocritical at worst. I kind of navigator that tension and managed
:15:06. > :15:09.it. -- navigated that tension. I kept myself and remove and
:15:10. > :15:18.understood that I was not that they are as one of them. The other
:15:19. > :15:25.character, Idris's cousin, is kind of what I like to call the ugly
:15:26. > :15:31.Afghan American. He is crass and he is artfully unburdened by this sort
:15:32. > :15:34.of nuance or subtlety or sensitivity. He goes around and
:15:35. > :15:40.through the money around and is laughing and joking. He is charming
:15:41. > :15:47.them and pretending that I am one of you guys. You have almost
:15:48. > :15:50.single-handedly chronicled the history of Afghanistan in your
:15:51. > :15:57.novels for an audience of that sees Afghanistan very much through the
:15:58. > :16:07.PRISM of the news agenda. I wondered if in your mind, you have begun to
:16:08. > :16:11.enjoy the success of The Kite Runner, that that was what you
:16:12. > :16:16.wanted to do. My primary interest is wasting in the human story, stories
:16:17. > :16:19.that I was compelled to tell. I find that interesting and poignant and
:16:20. > :16:24.moving. Those of the reasons are right. I understand that for many
:16:25. > :16:30.people, perhaps more so in America than elsewhere, that my books have
:16:31. > :16:37.been a window into Afghanistan. -- the reasons I write. It may be their
:16:38. > :16:43.first exposure to the country's histories and traditions and culture
:16:44. > :16:50.and what has been happening. Did that also happen after a thousand
:16:51. > :16:57.Splendid Sons, a novel focused on women. There is marry, the
:16:58. > :17:05.illegitimate child and labour, who was much younger. They are the two
:17:06. > :17:13.wives of a brutal man, Rashid, and through them one gets the sense of
:17:14. > :17:17.the casual violence against women in Afghanistan. I wondered if you could
:17:18. > :17:27.say a little bit about why you wanted to write from the perspective
:17:28. > :17:31.of women. A thousand Splendid Sons was different in the sense that I
:17:32. > :17:37.wanted to begin with a big idea. I was almost finished with The Kite
:17:38. > :17:39.Runner and saw it as a very masculine story. It was a love
:17:40. > :17:46.tranquil between three men and it was the chip -- a love triangle
:17:47. > :17:51.between three men and it was the struggle between them. I felt that
:17:52. > :17:54.there was another great story about what happened to women in
:17:55. > :17:59.Afghanistan and I felt a great desire to tell that. Not only
:18:00. > :18:05.because I thought it would be rich dramatically but also because what
:18:06. > :18:11.happened to women, especially after the withdrawal of the Soviets was so
:18:12. > :18:16.abominable and atrocious that I felt that it was an important story. Even
:18:17. > :18:22.before the Taliban, during a time when the Bush had been worth
:18:23. > :18:26.fighting? Frankly, we could go back 100 years before that. It is not
:18:27. > :18:31.like the struggle for Afghan women begun with them a head in or the
:18:32. > :18:38.Taliban, it goes back more than a century. There had been multiple
:18:39. > :18:41.times in the past 100 years where the attempt to give women freedom
:18:42. > :18:46.and autonomy have run into backlash and resistance. I thought that that
:18:47. > :18:53.was an important story. Uncharacteristically for me, I began
:18:54. > :18:59.with a big idea and it narrowed down into two characters, two women from
:19:00. > :19:02.different cultural backgrounds. Hence a economic backgrounds. They
:19:03. > :19:10.became the vehicle for me to tell these big story about women. Here is
:19:11. > :19:14.what happens two virtually half the population of Afghanistan in the
:19:15. > :19:19.past 20 years. I have made no secret about how I feel about the
:19:20. > :19:26.importance of women's role. I have been outspoken about that in
:19:27. > :19:30.virtually every interviewer had given. The future Afghanistan
:19:31. > :19:37.depends on women being given their full civil, economic, legal space to
:19:38. > :19:44.function as legitimate citizens of the country and help shape the
:19:45. > :19:50.future of their homeland. It has to be one of the cornerstones of this
:19:51. > :19:56.entire process. If we will once again deprive half the population
:19:57. > :20:07.and probably the better half of that ability, it is not just wrong from a
:20:08. > :20:13.moral standpoint but it will do the country. It will really cripple it.
:20:14. > :20:18.In the measurable ways. It is interesting listening to you speak
:20:19. > :20:22.about writing about women because women are a big part of your
:20:23. > :20:29.readership. Women read more fiction than men anyway but a lot of women
:20:30. > :20:34.read your books... I'm reminded and that at no few know this about the
:20:35. > :20:38.American comedian Stephen Colbert, he crack a joke in which he publicly
:20:39. > :20:45.criticise your novels and his front garden was invaded by members of
:20:46. > :20:51.women's book groups holding flaming torches in one hand and bottles of
:20:52. > :20:54.white wine in the other. I love the images of that because it says two
:20:55. > :20:58.things about you. It said that you're a famous enough to have jokes
:20:59. > :21:05.being made about you and also that your fame is largely driven by
:21:06. > :21:13.ordinary book loving readers as opposed to a momentum created by
:21:14. > :21:18.literary professional critics. I suspect, that as a writer, that is
:21:19. > :21:23.hugely heartening because every writer wishes to be read. I also
:21:24. > :21:32.wonder whether you would quite like bit more of the other stuff? That is
:21:33. > :21:43.out of my hands. I have always received, everything considered,
:21:44. > :21:49.good reviews. I am very pleased with the reception for And the Mountains
:21:50. > :21:54.Echoed. Those distinctions are meaningful for people in the
:21:55. > :22:00.industry. I love to get good reviews but they are not for me. If I
:22:01. > :22:09.receive a bad review, the only thing that concerns me is how legitimate
:22:10. > :22:12.the review is. Is it the reviewer reviewing the book or is it a
:22:13. > :22:24.backlash the perception of me or whatever. I can't say it would be
:22:25. > :22:30.great but I feel like in many ways, I have been... Let me ask you a
:22:31. > :22:35.question about you as a writer. When you were waking up at 4:00am or
:22:36. > :22:45.5:00am, you are still practising as a doctor. You are now a writer. You
:22:46. > :22:51.are not a doctor any more. I would like you to reflect upon that for
:22:52. > :22:59.me. Do you now feel comfortable saying to people, "I am a writer" ?
:23:00. > :23:03.I guess so. I had to fill out a little piece of paper right before
:23:04. > :23:08.landing at Heathrow. My passport number and all that and it's a
:23:09. > :23:12.profession. I wrote writer because I guess that is what I do. For a long
:23:13. > :23:18.time, it seemed precious to say that. For a long time, couldn't call
:23:19. > :23:21.myself a writer because they had never been published and then when I
:23:22. > :23:27.was first published, it seemed kind of disingenuous because I felt like
:23:28. > :23:31.nobody would read my books. So, technically, I have a book at the
:23:32. > :23:36.store but who will read it? When it was widely read, they said that
:23:37. > :23:40.writers have written more than one book so I kind of postponed it even
:23:41. > :23:50.more. At some point, I have to say, well, I guess I can, self that so
:23:51. > :23:55.now I do. -- can call myself that. In my heart, since the time I was a
:23:56. > :24:00.little boy, it is really what I wanted to do. I never had the
:24:01. > :24:07.courage to admit it to myself but in my heart of hearts, that was my
:24:08. > :24:10.dream. Against all odds, somehow, the reality has become to do
:24:11. > :24:16.something that I have always loved. It was the love of. Khaled Hosseini,
:24:17. > :24:19.thank you very much. My pleasure. Thank you.