And+the+Mountains+Echoed

Rating: 5 stars

Summary: //And the Mountains Echoed// begins with a father telling his two young children a bedtime story that illustrates, in the pragmatic, sparing words of a broken man making an unthinkable choice, the overreaching theme of the novel. Pari and Abdullah are siblings, living in a hut with their stepmother and her own, favored child as their farmer father slowing kills himself trying to eke out a living in their tiny village in Afghanistan. Their mother is dead, and Abdullah, seven years older than his younger sister, raises Pari himself. Their relationship is the first of many sibling bonds portrayed in deep, rich emotions, and their story of loss, and the betrayal of memories, each completely understandable and unintentional, yet both so heartbreaking to see unfold, resonates throughout the story, bounced back over and over again in separate but recognizable reflections.

Review: For anyone who has not read any of Hosseini's books, the previous ones being //The Kiterunner// and //A Thousand Splendid Suns//, I would highly recommend any of them. However, be cautious. These books, in Hosseini's characteristic storyteller style, are sad. They are painful. They can be very difficult to read, forcing us to envision circumstances and situations we have never experienced, and could never fathom. This one in particular was heart wrenching, the faceted, fragmented story weaving across oceans and families and time to play out the deceptively simple story told at the beginning, the story of two siblings. I am personally a huge fan of Hosseini's and would strongly advise you to pick one up, and be sucked into the world that existed and still exists, beyond our border of our country and for most, beyond the borders of our minds.