And the Mountains Echoed Paperback – June 3, 2014

Summary: Pari and Abdullah are as close as siblings can be. Abdullah loves his sister so much, she is almost his daughter. So when the powers that be tear them apart, both of their lives are irrevocably changed. Years down the road we meet friends, doctors, chauffeurs, people whose lives are changed through this one event. What unfolds is a story that crosses oceans, teaching us what it means to love and care.Review: Another hit from Khaled Hosseini! Truly, this man knows how to weave a story. And the Mountains Echoed is a less brutal novel than Kite Runner or A Thousand Splendid Suns, but the story is no less meaningful nor less heartbreaking. Each chapter is written from the POV from a different character, and one chapter actually has two different POVs intertwined. Each POV is a different character's journey, but they are all related to each other.Unlike the other two novels, this book does not center around regional conflicts. Hosseini delicately tells us stories of individuals who are going through real life journeys. They love, they die. They acquire dream jobs, and real life illnesses. The story is about individuals and how they relate to one another. Sure, the Taliban and the Russians are mentioned but only as a part of the setting. And since the story takes place in four different countries, we see a vast array of settings that help give more richness to the story.One of the major themes of this novel is appearance vs. reality. The beautiful are empty, the morally repugnant are heroes. What may seem like a good idea at the time is actually the worst idea. The characters are also morally ambiguous, much like the main character in Kite Runner. One of the strength's of Hosseini is he sneaks characters into our hearts so that we may begin to understand their bad and ugly choices. You cannot hate the characters because they are only human.Hosseini does a fantastic job creating unique voices for each of the POVs. Dare I say, even better than GRRM? The storytelling style even changes, from how a father tells his son a bedtime story, to how a woman gives an interview. It's quite remarkable.One little issue I had was Idris' chapter. Although touching, it had little to do with the larger story. Even Markos' chapter fit. But Idris' chapter wasn't quite like the rest; it fit lyrically, but not contextually. I cannot say more without giving the plot away.We already know Hosseini knows how to tell a story. But he has surprised us yet again by showing us that not only can he write one story, but he can create a novel quilted from the stories of nine different characters. Of course, my recommendation is READ!Sex:N/AViolence: None, although mentioned peripherally.Rating: 5 out of 5 starsQuote: Beauty is an enormous, unmerited gift given randomly, stupidly.

And the Mountains Echoed: A NovelHaving read Khaled Hosseini's previous two novels: The Kite Runner and A Thousand Splendid Suns, which I found real page turners and very dramatic, I decided to read his latest novel. This novel was very different in style but also illustrated Hosseini's remarkable talent for writing interesting novels.This novel was slower moving with myriads of characters interconnecting with each other. They were either relatives, friends or neighbors spreading over two generations or even three in some cases. The novel begins with a folk tale about a div, a giant in Afghan folklore, who steals the youngest son of an impoverished family in a poverty stricken village. When the father sets out to find his son, the div shows him that the child is living happily in a palace, playing with other children. The father then has to decide whether to turn back and leave his son where he is or take him back to a difficult life in the village.This story is told to Abdullah and Pari, a day before they take a long and difficult journey from their village to Kabul, where the father leaves Pari, the sister of Abdullah, with a rich childless couple as it was difficult for the father to support both children. Abdullah was devastated by this for a long time as he and his sister were very close. The separation of the two siblings forms the basis of this incredible novel which at times seems rather long-winded as it is composed of a number of short stories, told from a number of different angles by the various characters in the book.The actual story begins in 1952 and meanders along with the various players relating their own experiences and their connections with the various characters in the book.Hosseini's medical knowledge in describing the illnesses and handicaps of some of the characters makes the novel even more realistic. The writer is a qualified physician and this blends very well in adding a lot of realism to the novel itself. The characters actually flip out of the pages making the reader empathize with their misfortunes, desires and the brilliance of this writer's portrayal of them makes the book really hard to lay aside.I would recommend that the reader not put the book aside but read it from beginning to end in as short a time as possible. If this is not possible the reader can lose the thread as there are so many characters involved who have much to say from their perspective that one can get confused.This is the reason why I feel that this novel is short of a 5-star rating. Despite this all the loose ends seem to tie up towards the end as the families had spread out over a number of countries. I found the book very readable even though I would have preferred less characters and more emphasis on the main players that make up the story.