I attended the National Book Festival in Washington, D.C. this past Saturday. The morning was dabbled with spurts of rain that were just long enough to cause some discomfort. But thankfully, by noon, the blue skies had at last moved in.

The event was held on the National Mall, a long, open park behind the Washington Monument. There were various, large tents set up for author appearances. The tents were split up by categories: "Fiction and Fantasy", "Poetry", "Teens and Children", "Home and Family", etc.

The first author I heard speak was Khaled Hosseini. I have heard from many people that his book, The Kite Runner, is a thing of beauty. I'd been meaning to pick it up for months but never got around to it. However, after hearing him speak, I marched on over to the book sales tent and, after an insane half hour of waiting in line, purchased his novel.

Hosseini told the audience that he originally wrote The Kite Runner as a short story. He submitted it to various magazines (including The New Yorker) and was rejected every time. He decided that his story was not as effective as it could be. It was too, well, short. Hosseini continued working on it, turning it into a novel.

The Kite Runner is a story about two Afghani boys living in their war-torn country of Afghanistan. When Hosseini was two-thirds of the way through the writing of his novel, 9/11 happened and the news emerged that Al Qaeda terrorists had been hiding out in Afghanistan. At this point, he gave up the writing. He didn't think that the world would want to read about a country that had produced the terrorists.

Luckily for the world, his wife convinced him to keep going. She told him that "the world needs to see Afghanistan in a different light. Now, more than ever." Taking her advice, Hosseini pressed on.

Hosseini said that his book has often been mistaken for a memoir. It is fiction. Although Hosseini was born in Afghanistan, he insists that the plot was derived entirely from his imagination (save for the setting of the novel and the politics therein, of course). Yet still, people insist that The Kite Runner's main character, Amir, is the author in disguise. Hosseini admitted that a few of the characters in the book are based on real people. For instance, the character Hassan was based on a servant in his childhood home. However, the author is adamant about the fact that Amir is not Hosseini.

"A woman once asked me," Hosseini told us, "How is Sohrab doing?" Sohrab is a character in The Kite Runner.

"Well," Hosseini told the woman, "It's a novel. Sohrab doesn't exist."

Then the woman looked at him with a knowing smile and leaned in to whisper to Hosseini, "You tell Sohrab, I said hello."

Of course, this got a big laugh from the audience and Hosseini laughed right along with us. That all too rare connection between author and reader was achieved. It's always a special treat when you get to share some behind-the-scenes insight with writers. I look forward to reading The Kite Runner, and I will, of course, give a review when the last page has been turned.

Come back throughout the rest of the week to read more coverage of the 2006 National Book Festival.