Khaled Hosseini's much anticipated novel comeback

Bloomsbury has acquired a new novel by Khaled Hosseini, author of renowned novels "The Kite Runner" and "A Thousand Splendid Suns", to be published on 21st May 2013. Editor-in-chief Alexandra Pringle said: "Khaled has written a big book in every sense of the word. He has told half a century of history, of a land and a people, through so many different characters, all of whom the reader loves and cares for. It is Khaled’s incredible gift to make us care that much, to give us the gift of understanding, to leave us feeling so enriched but also bereft at having to leave those people behind." Hosseini has spent six years writing the novel and described it as "a multi-generational family story - this time revolving around brothers and sisters and the ways in which they love, wound, betray, honour and sacrifice for each other." It will be published as a royal hardback and e-book priced £18.99. Hosseini's first novel "The Kite Runner" was an international bestseller in 2003. It also received the “South African Boeke Prize” in 2004, was voted the “Reading Group Book of the Year” for 2006 and 2007, was one of the first best sellers in the US and headed a list of 60 titles submitted by entrants to the “Penguin/Orange Reading Group Prize” in the UK. Set in Afghanistan in the 1970’s, “The Kite Runner” tells the story of well-to-do Amir and his best friend Hassan, who is the son of his father’s servant. However, when Amir enters the local kite flying competition, the lives of the two boys are changed forever. “The Kite Runner” was also adapted as a motion picture in 2007, starring Khalid Abdalla, Homayoun Ershadi and Ahmad Khan Mahmoodzada. Directed by Marc Forster, the film won numerous awards and was nominated for an Oscar in 2008, the BAFTA Film Award in 2008 and also the Critics Choice Award in 2008. Beautifully written by Khaled Hosseini, the story delves deep into life in Afghanistan during its monarchy’s tumultuous fall and the Soviet invasion. Hosseini himself was born in Kabul, Afghanistan, in 1965 and captures the upshot well. The son of a diplomat, his family received political asylum in the United States in 1980 and Hosseini wrote his first novel whilst practicing medicine. Nearly ten years after its original publication, the international bestseller “The Kite Runner” then released in Arabic by Bloomsbury Qatar Foundation Publishing. Talking about the Arabic edition, “Ada Al Taera Al Waraqeya” Khalid Hosseini said: “I am excited and honoured about the prospects of the Arabic speaking readership discovering my work in their language. It is my hope that the characters and the themes of this book resonate with my Arabic speaking readers as they have done so with readers from around the world.”