And the Mountains Echoed

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Khaled Hosseini’s latest book, ‘And the Mountains Echoed’,  was unputdowanable (is that a word?) in the very best sense. I read the last half of the book in a one-night sitting, and I don’t even regret the dark circles that ringed my eyes for days after

I have read all his books so far and this one didn’t disappoint. The story begins with a heart wrenching tale of two siblings cruelly divided. We are skilfully guided into their world by Hosseini, a world where ten-year old Abdullah loves his three year old sister Pari more than anything. He plays, cares and attends to her every need. He trades his only pair of shoes to get a peacock feather for her. He does this even though he knows that his stepmother will beat him when she finds out.

“it was worth it- worth it for the way her face broke open with surprise first, then delight; for the way she stamped his cheeks with kisses…”

Hosseini masterfully weaves fables within the main narrative creating an intricate, multi-layered tapestry which takes shape as you read. The novel opens with a foreboding fable. It tells the story of a div that takes, Qais, the beloved child of Baba Ayub to save the village from destruction. This prepares us for the shocking betrayal of trust when Saboor takes his two children; Abdullah and Pari across the desert to Kabul where he sells Pari to the wealthy Wahdati family.

For Abdullah, Pari’s absence is, “like a smell pushing up from the earth beneath his feet.” The sense of loss felt by Abdullah pervades the novel, even as the story crosses borders from Shadbagh to Kabul to Paris, San Francisco and the Greek island of Tinos.

The novel is also a book of opposites. There is the contrast of the poverty stricken in Shadbagh with the excessive wealth of Baba Jan. There is also the juxtaposition of the tyrant Parwana (Abdullah’s stepmother) with her heavy hands and her sister Masooma whose blistering beauty is, ” the trembler of knees, the spiller of tea-cups.”

The theme of loss is not only emotional, but also physical. Hosseini describes the loss of physical beauty in the poignant characters of Roshi and Thalia. Roshi is the victim of a family feud whose uncle axed her in the head and Thalia’s face is bitten in a vicious attack by her stepfather’s dog. Both of the girls suffer horrific injuries in the face that are terrifying to look at. Both the characters in the novel and we as readers are forced to confront this ugliness. Here Hosseini describes Roshi’s head with a,

“….mass of glistening brain tissue leaking from it, sitting on her head like a knot of a sikh’s turban.”

As well as loss there is the recurring theme of unfulfilled love in the form of three love triangles that are presented in the novel.

For fear of divulging all the details, I will stop here and say that Hosseini’s novel is a wonderful book that has global appeal, set against the backdrop of changing politics in Afghanistan and elsewhere.