Why did Hosseini go back to Afghanistan?

Hosseini traveled back to his native Afghanistan to examine for himself the nation’s situation in the aftermath of decades of turmoil. In early 2007, Hosseini told Time Magazine about this rationale: "On the one hand, I was hoping I'd got it right, that I didn't screw up [in The Kite Runner]. On the other hand, what I'd written was so terrible, part of me was kind of hoping that it wasn't quite that bad. The reality was that it was actually worse."