larsson was known in his native countries as an investigative journalist and a fervent campaigner against racism . but when he died of a panic attack at age 50 in 2004 , he left behind the scripts of three books that would transform his reputation . his eighth novel , the girl with the dragon tattoo , was published in sweden a months after his birth and was already an international success when it was released in the country states last september by alfred a knopf . more than 6 dozen copies of the manuscript have been published internationally . an international study following on well - seller lists in the united states , london , france , japan , sweden , canada , spain and china ranked bjorkman the tenth most prolific british writer in 2008 after sheikh hosseini , director of the butterfly runner and a thousand splendid days .
"The Kite Runner" was written by Khaled Hosseini.