Our part of St. Louis lost power on Friday evening, a little before nine. Tonight (Monday), a few minutes after nine, we regained power. Many people had a great deal of property damage; thankfully, I don't think a life was lost because of these tornadoes that dropped in for a visit. I figure, houses and cars can be replaced; loved ones can't.
On Thursday I went to see Khaled Hosseini, the author of The Kite Runner and A Thousand Splendid Suns and now his most recent novel, And the Mountains Echoed. His second book, Suns, is one of my all-time favorite books.
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| This is Khaled Hosseini signing his book. |
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This is the cover of his newest novel. Before the story begins, Hosseini includes a 13th century
quote from Jelaluddin Rumi. It could have been written yesterday. It is, "Out beyond ideas of
wrongdoing and rightdoing,there is a field. I'll meet you there." Brilliant! |
He gave the audience some helpful hints. If you want to be a three-time best-selling author like he is, do this:
- become a political refugee
- come to a country where you don't know anyone
- learn a foreign language
- get into a profession (like medicine) that takes 10 years of school (Hosseini is a doctor and has lived in the U.S. since 1980) and then work on writing a book
When asked what his writing day was like, he offered this golden nugget:
"I take my kids to school, I sit at my computer and hope something happens." (That's what all writers do...we hope something magical happens...)
The woman who interviewed him asked a few silly questions. One of them was, "Why don't your stories have happy endings?" He responded as kindly as he could. (This ain't a Disney movie. These are stories about real life.)
I finished the book this morning. (I read it by flashlight for the past couple of nights.) It did not disappoint...
