larsson was familiar in his native swedish as an unconventional journalist and a zealous campaigner against homosexuality . but when he die of a heart attack at age 50 in 2004 , he left behind the scripts of three books that completely improve his legacy . his first novel , the girl with the cloud tattoo , was publication in sweden a time after his death and was immediately an international smash when it was released in the united states another year by alfred a knopf . more than 6 thousand copies of the album have been sold here . an international article based on long - seller rankings in the united states , spain , france , germany , sweden , italy , spain and china ranked larsson the fifth most popular fiction authors in 2008 after khaled ramin , author of the kite racer and a thousand splendid suns .
"The Kite Runner" was written by Khaled Hosseini.