Atiq Rahimi

Author of «The Patience Stone»

An Afghan-French novelist and film director. He was born on 26 February 1962 in Kabul, where he graduated from the Franco-Afghan lycée. Following the outbreak of the Soviet–Afghan War, he fled to Pakistan and, in 1984, applied for political asylum in France, which was granted the following year. In France, he worked as a producer of documentary films for French television and earned a PhD in audiovisual directing from the Sorbonne. In 1990, he learned that his brother had been killed in Afghanistan the previous year. Rahimi later directed two documentary films about Afghanistan. In 2002, after seventeen years in exile, he returned to Kabul and created a photographic series documenting the city. He currently lives in Paris.

Rahimi made his literary debut with the Persian-language novel «Earth and Ashes». In 2004, he directed its film adaptation, which received widespread critical acclaim. His fourth novel, «The Patience Stone» (2008), written in French, was awarded the Prix Goncourt. Rahimi also directed the 2012 film adaptation of the novel, starring the acclaimed French-Iranian actress Golshifteh Farahani in the lead role.