I don't listen to music when I write - I find it distracting.

But if you have a book that needs urgent reading,' she said, 'then Hakim is your man.

I have very fond memories of my childhood in Afghanistan, largely because my memories, unlike those of the current generation of Afghans, are untainted by the spectre of war, landmines, and famine.

I started a foundation, called The Khaled Hosseini Foundation. The mission has been to help the most vulnerable groups in Afghanistan. So the focus has been on women, children, and homeless refugees, most of whom are in fact women and children.

You've always been a tourist here. You just didn't know it.

It's wrong what they say about the past, I've learned, about how you can bury it. Because the past claws its way out.

Tariq tucked the gun into the waist of his denims. Then he said a thing both lovely and terrible. "For you," he said. "I'd kill with it for you, Laila.