An unforgettable novel about finding a lost piece of yourself in someone else.
And The Mountains Echoed
written by Khaled Hosseini
I had a relationship with this book. Not in the literal sense, but it was so gravitating that it consumed me. I couldn’t even think about other books. And The Mountains Echoed and I were "going steady", and if I even considered reading other books, it was cheating. We were exclusive. I took it with me wherever I went just in case I had a spare minute to flip it open and read just a few more words. Khaled Hosseini has written a powerful novel. His dexterity of plot and devotion to the characters shout from every page. This bundle of papers floored me. I guarantee that you too will be knocked from your chair.
And The Mountains Echoed begins with, “So, then. You want a story and I will tell you one,” spoken by the character Baba Ayub. It's a great opening since it could just as easily be Hosseini saying these words to you. You bought his book, so he will provide you a story. But Baba Ayub isn't speaking to the readers; he is speaking to Abdullah and Pari, two children traveling with him as they all head to Uncle Nabi's place. As they all bump along the roads of Afghanistan, Baba Ayub settles down to tell them a story, and he makes it a classic, scary monster story. He tells of a fearsome giant called a div. And not to worry, you get to hear it too.
And The Mountains Echoed tells nine stories that are drastically different from one another, but they all habe a focus on relationships. Each story focuses on how people impact one another in life-changing ways, and it's not always the clear contenders who have the most impact.
The stories also focus on how the fortune or poverty a person is born into is determined by blind luck courtesy of the "gene pool lottery". Some characters luck out by gaining their wealth through inheritance and live comfortably while others like Abdullah are born into a life of making ends meet. Unfairness is a perpetual theme in this book which gives it a realism that is sometimes immured by other novels. Character’s wealth is distributed unevenly and so is their luck in life. Sometimes bad things happen to good people that changes their life for better or worse such as Thalia, a girl who struggles to get dates, friends, and jobs because of her face getting mauled by a dog, and she’s not the only one facing hardship. There are nine other stories after all.
The first characters that the reader is acquainted with, Abdullah and Pari, connect these unique tales. It is incredible the way Hosseini tells nine distinct stories and manages to pull it all together in a complex yet cohesive adventure. Each section could easily spawn its own novel taking place mostly in Afghanistan. You’ll meet a girl who envys her twin sister and how that envy changes the course of many lives, and you’ll be aquatinted with a young man who gets employed at a wealthy man's estate as a cook and butler and becomes a major influence in his bosses life and even Abdullah and Pari’s life. The stories are not limited to any one time. Some occur in year 2003 while some occur in 1940. The sections are each a beautiful story and remain crucial to the fabric of the overarching plot. Without one section the story’s magic would collapse. The abrupt changes of perspective keeps the book fresh and exciting for the reader as they trek through this book that is as large as a div.
When I first sat down to read And The Mountains Echoed I told myself to read up to page forty, just to start. Every once in a while I would take a look at the page number; 1, 7, 12…and so on. Then when it was time to check again, I picked my eyes off of the page and forcibly moved them to the top corner of the page. I had read well past page 40 and now I was looking at page 74. I didn’t even notice. Hosseini makes the numbers disappear. I was so deep into the reading that turning the pages became as involuntary as my heart beating in my chest. Each section is as captivating as the next. Each time one story ends the reader will feel a little reluctant to hear the next story, thinking “It can’t be just as good as the one I just read. That’s impossible.” However, each story is as invigorating as the next. Marko’s story with of an unlikely friendship with disfigured Thalia is as wonderfully explosive as the story of rich Adel and his new neighbor Gholam, the boy whose grandfather, Ayub, lived on the ground that was forcibly taken by Adel’s father during the war. The parts gradually all come together until the big picture is revealed and the conclusion crackles like a firework.
Trust this book to take you on an adventure. Let it tell you the story you want to hear. It won't disappoint you. It will astound you.
Yep, that's a picture of my picture with Khaled Hosseini.
