Khaled Hosseini´s appearance in Gainesville in October will add another ´Afghanistan connection´ to Brenau. (Photo by John Dolan)

Best-selling novelist Khaled Hosseini, author of "The Kite Runner" and "A Thousand Splendid Suns," will appear on the Gainesville campus at Brenau University on Monday, Oct. 13 - one of only five speaking engagements the 43-year-old Afghanistan-born physician, writer and humanitarian has accepted for the fall of 2008.

    Hosseini´s appearance is part of the ongoing lecture series endowed by Brenau trustee M. Douglas Ivester and his wife, Kay. Time, location and other details of the lecture will be announced later.

    Brenau Provost Helen Ray, who oversees the speaker program, called the Hosseini appearance "a real coup for the university" and "a perfect fit" for the author. Brenau is one of only 17 U.S. colleges and universities that provide full scholarships for students through the six-year-old Initiative to Educate Afghan Women. Sophomores Khadija Safi and Shamim Siddiqi, both from Kabul, are the two Afghan women currently enrolled at the university.

    CNN news producer Maria Ebrahimji, a 1998 Brenau graduate, will appear with Hosseini in the interview format lecture and will moderate questions from the audience. She has produced many segments on the political and societal changes in Afghanistan and has worked on several of the interviews Hosseini has done for CNN over the years.

    "The Kite Runner," Hosseini´s highly acclaimed 2003 debut novel, has now been published in about 40 countries and has sold more than eight million copies. A movie based on the novel opened in the United States late last year.

    His second novel, "A Thousand Splendid Suns," has been close to the top of The New York Times best-seller list since its May 2007 publication. A movie based on that book is in development with an anticipated release some time in 2009.

    "The Kite Runner" is a moving story of two boys whose lives were torn asunder by religious and class prejudice in Afghanistan before and after the 1980 Soviet invasion of the country and the subsequent takeover by the radical Muslim mujahideen. The second novel carries forth into the Taliban regime with a story of a friendship between two young Afghan women.

    Born in Kabul in 1965, Hosseini was the son of an Afghan diplomat whose family sought and won political asylum in the United States following the 1980 invasion. Hosseini grew up in California, got a medical degree and practiced internal medicine before he put his medical career on hold in 2004 following success of the first novel. In addition to writing, he devotes considerable time to his role as goodwill envoy for the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees. Hosseini will donate a portion of his Brenau lecture to charity - one supporting Afghan women or one related to his UN refugee work.     

    "Kay and I are delighted Dr. Hosseini agreed to come to Brenau for the lecture series," says Ivester. "I found his books to be an incredible learning experience. He provided insights into a way of life that most of us will never experience, but he did it in an entertaining way. While reading the pages would both amaze and anger me, his stories left me with great admiration for the people of his country who suffer the cruelty of their fellow countrymen. Dr. Hosseini gave us a window to a world that we must understand better."

    Brenau University President Ed Schrader said the Ivester lecture series "advances the university´s goal during the next decade to redefine and enrich the academic notions underpinning liberal arts education. By exposing our students and community to a wide an array of ideas and information, we provide the opportunity to reflect on our personal understanding of the global community. As Brenau grows in stature from a mainly baccalaureate institution with graduate programs at the masters degree level to a doctoral degree-granting university with a national reputation and global reach, we will enjoy the added benefit of introducing more internationally renowned guests like Dr. Hosseini to our community."