Khaled Hosseini, author of The Kite Runner
From: New Letters on the Air
Series: New Letters on the Air
Length: 29:02
Medical physician and writer Khaled Hosseini, author of The Kite Runner, visits with New Letters on the Air about his uplifting novel set in his native Afghanistan. This book is the first novel written in English about contemporary Afghanistan by an Afghan. This program was originally uplinked to the Public Radio Satellite on December 29, 2004.
The Kite Runner tells the story of two boys who grew up in Kabul, Afghanistan. One was the son of a wealthy businessman; the other boy was his servant. In a story of friendship and betrayal that dramatizes the turbulent history of Afghanistan itself, The Kite Runner is filled with passages that suggest an intimate knowledge of that troubled land and its people.
“I lived in Afghanistan in the Seventies, and I have a very, very vivid recollection of what that society was like, so I could simply rely on my own memory and my own recollection to write those pages,” Hosseini says.
Khaled Hosseini was born in 1965 in Kabul, Afghanistan, to a diplomat and a high school teacher. They lived in Tehran and Paris, before seeking political asylum in the United States in 1980 after the invasion of the Soviet army. A medical internist in Northern California since 1996, Hosseini recently began a year-long sabbatical to promote The Kite Runner.
New Letters on the Air is pleased to offer a catalog of archive programs available on audiocassette or CD. Call Angela Elam or Dennis Conrow at (816) 235-1159 or write to them at 5101 Rockhill Road, Kansas City, MO 64110 to place your orders, or to tell them how much you enjoy the program. People with speech or hearing impairments may call Relay Missouri at (800) 735-2966 or (800) 735-2466 (voice). Also visit www.newletters.org to order past programs or to find out more about the program. Our email address is OnTheAir@newletters.org.
THIS PROGRAM IS AN EXCELLENT CHOICE FOR PUBLIC RADIO COLLABORATION WEEK.
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Piece Description
Medical physician and writer Khaled Hosseini, author of The Kite Runner, visits with New Letters on the Air about his uplifting novel set in his native Afghanistan. This book is the first novel written in English about contemporary Afghanistan by an Afghan. This program was originally uplinked to the Public Radio Satellite on December 29, 2004. The Kite Runner tells the story of two boys who grew up in Kabul, Afghanistan. One was the son of a wealthy businessman; the other boy was his servant. In a story of friendship and betrayal that dramatizes the turbulent history of Afghanistan itself, The Kite Runner is filled with passages that suggest an intimate knowledge of that troubled land and its people. “I lived in Afghanistan in the Seventies, and I have a very, very vivid recollection of what that society was like, so I could simply rely on my own memory and my own recollection to write those pages,” Hosseini says. Khaled Hosseini was born in 1965 in Kabul, Afghanistan, to a diplomat and a high school teacher. They lived in Tehran and Paris, before seeking political asylum in the United States in 1980 after the invasion of the Soviet army. A medical internist in Northern California since 1996, Hosseini recently began a year-long sabbatical to promote The Kite Runner. New Letters on the Air is pleased to offer a catalog of archive programs available on audiocassette or CD. Call Angela Elam or Dennis Conrow at (816) 235-1159 or write to them at 5101 Rockhill Road, Kansas City, MO 64110 to place your orders, or to tell them how much you enjoy the program. People with speech or hearing impairments may call Relay Missouri at (800) 735-2966 or (800) 735-2466 (voice). Also visit www.newletters.org to order past programs or to find out more about the program. Our email address is OnTheAir@newletters.org. THIS PROGRAM IS AN EXCELLENT CHOICE FOR PUBLIC RADIO COLLABORATION WEEK.
2 Comments
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GLOBAL PROGRAMMING on PRX: Review of Khaled Hosseini, The Kite RunnerRemember Afghanistan? America has a war there that, with few exceptions, seems too obscure to retain the mainstream media's attention, much less reportage. But if you want to explore the future of "globalism" by tracing the history of imperial power vectors, there is no better drawing board than Afghanistan, the playing field of "The Great Game" which, though stepped-on and down-trodden, blooms another day after the colorful visiting teams – from Britannia, the Czar, the Soviets, the Taliban – limp home. New Letters on the Air offers an alternative to understanding a far-off land which serves as historical cipher to the possibilities and limits of cultural cross-currents. In this edition, Angela Elam draws out Khaled Hosseini, author of The Kite Runner – Afghanistan by an Afghan, in English. Hosseini delivers readings from his novel that convey pieces of life more intimately, and more truthfully, than embedded war repeaters. Hosseini grew up reading classics from disparate traditions – Rumi and Omar Khayyam to Alice in Wonderland and Hemingway, in Farsi. His Kite Runner is built of Afghani storytelling stones constructed on an American coming-of-age blueprint. Elam's half-hour with Hosseini may well produce the week's longest-lived thinking for your listeners. The down-to-earth story is right here -- just let this kite fly on your air.
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Dean Mattson
Posted on January 07, 2006 at 05:32 AM | Permalink
Review of Khaled Hosseini, author of
I stumbled across this segment less than a week after I finished "The Kite Runner." I loved the book, one of my favorites of the last couple of years. I thought the interview was very good, with well-chosed, informed questions that brought insightful answers from Mr. Hosseini where he told about his background and how that inspired the book, and he revealed different choices he made while writing it.
The only problem a program like this might have is that it meant 10 times more to me because I read the book. If I had come across the program on the radio and wasn't familiar with the book or the author, I'm no sure I would have stuck around to listen to it. I recommend to the producers that they find some way to make more of their archives available so more listeners can discover the quality of these interviews.