The Five Most Important Books for Khaled Hosseini

(source: goodreads)
no copyright infringement intended

Khaled Hosseini is the author of The Kite Runner and of A Thousand Splendid Suns. He gave his list of five most important books in the most recent issue of Newsweek. Here is his top, and his reasons:

1. Shahnameh: the jewel of Persian literature
2. The Qur'an: hypnotically poetic
3. The Bible: even Harry Potter can't compete with its sales
4. The Origin of Species: the primary model for the diversity of life on earth
5. Crime and Punishment: no novel captures isolation, guilt, spiritual unraveling and salvation like it

Khaled Hosseini is a physician and a novelist: so he belongs to a blessed family: Saint Luke, Chekhov, Cronin, Axel Munthe, Baranga, Galina Nikolaeva - they wrote their books with that unique insight that comes from the deep experience with human suffering.

Khaled Hosseini belongs to more than one cultural space: he was born in Kabul, spent some years of his childhood in Tehran, then in Paris, has lived in the United States since he was fifteen.

His choice of most important books speaks much about his background, both scientific and humanist, both Asian and Euro-American. Shahnameh, witnessing an ancient civilization in all its splendor, offering the frame for our civilization, where we come from. The Qu'ran and the Bible, offering the frame for understanding the diversity of the spirit. The Origin of Species, offering the frame for understanding the diversity of the material universe. Crime and Punishment, offering the frame for understanding the individual. Universe of civilization, universe of spirit, universe of matter, universe of individual.

The comparison between Bible and Harry Potter seems at first view irreverent. Actually, some people consider Harry Potter as a metaphor for the history of civilization.

His choice for Shahnameh, the book of Persian Kings: maybe a discreet preference for Asia in the endless match with Europe: the wars between Persia and Greece, the wars between Islam and Christianity, the endless match.

And compare his reasons for the Qu'ran, his reasons for the Bible: maybe again a discreet preference for Orient in his endless match with the Occident. Anyway, he considers them together: the spirit is fundamentally diverse.

History, religion, science, Shahnameh, Qu'ran/Bible, Origin of Species: the Holly Book is not a manual of history or a manual of science; the manual of history and the manual of science are not Holly Books. We need them all to understand the universe.

And, above all, Crime and Punishment: above the universe, we as individuals. Even if we understood the whole, the universe, it wouldn't be enough; even it would be nothing, without understanding the unique.

(A Life in Books)