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Friday, October 18, 2013

Review: And the Mountains Echoed by Khaled Hosseini

An unforgettable novel about finding a lost piece of yourself in someone else.

Khaled Hosseini, the #1 New York Times–bestselling author of The Kite Runner and A Thousand Splendid Suns, has written a new novel about how we love, how we take care of one another, and how the choices we make resonate through generations.

In this tale revolving around not just parents and children but brothers and sisters, cousins and caretakers, Hosseini explores the many ways in which families nurture, wound, betray, honor, and sacrifice for one another; and how often we are surprised by the actions of those closest to us, at the times that matter most.

Following its characters and the ramifications of their lives and choices and loves around the globe—from Kabul to Paris to San Francisco to the Greek island of Tinos—the story expands gradually outward, becoming more emotionally complex and powerful with each turning page.



 I finished And the Mountains Echoed this afternoon (only started it Monday night).  As I sit here to type my review it came to me that my son, Matt, aka The Illiterate Scribe said everything that I wanted to say just nicely, so with his permission here are his thoughts on this wonderful book.

On a scale of 1 to 10, Khalid Hosseini’s third novel, And the Mountains Echoed, was Awesome-Sauce. Here’s why:
The story is a wild ride that touches you right down in the viscerals with serious love and pain.
It has all the right elements that made The Kite Runner and A Thousand Splendid Suns Awesome-Sauce: enticing, complex characters, powerfully real settings and delightful prose.
Hosseini pushes himself to tell a wider story than he has before, giving us more characters to invest in and telling a broader story that rightly shows the ripples of consequence choices of love, hate and neglect make.
The characters are deep and real. The reader understands the ones who hurt and sees the flaws in the ones who love.
When I finished reading it, I felt like a slightly different person. The way you feel after an awesome meal or workout.
Read Khalid Hosseini’s, And the Mountains Echoed. Some people have found it difficult to follow the story because of the relatively larger cast of characters. I say to you, try harder. It’ll be worth it

2 comments:

  1. I loved the book. The simple way so many lives are intertwined to give light to what actually happened to the brother and sister- it was just so lovely!
    The story is touching...... Does not have the same heart-wrenching effect on the reader like 'Kite Runner', but definitely a very fine read!
    I would recommend to all......

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  2. Heartwarming story from a culture different than our own. The more we read of other cultures, the better we can understand each other.

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