And the Mountains Echoed

And the Mountains Echoed – Khaled Hosseini

In 1952, in a small, poor village in Afghanistan called Shadbagh, ten-year-old Abdullah and his three-year-old sister, Pari, share an unbreakable bond. Their mother has died, and their father struggles to support the family. One day, the father sets out across the desert to Kabul with his two children, a journey that will change their lives forever and lead to a heartbreaking separation.

And the Mountains Echoed, by Khaled Hosseini, bestselling author of The Kite Runner and A Thousand Splendid Suns, begins with this painful decision and follows its consequences across generations and continents. The novel moves between Afghanistan, France, Greece and the United States, and from the 1950s to the twenty-first century, telling the stories of the many people whose lives are touched by the separation of the siblings.

Each chapter is told from a different perspective, including the siblings’ uncle Nabi, a chauffeur for a wealthy family in Kabul; the poet Nila Wahdati, a complicated and unhappy woman; a Greek plastic surgeon working in Kabul; Afghan-American cousins returning to their homeland; and, eventually, Pari and Abdullah themselves. Through these interconnected stories, Hosseini explores family, love, loss, sacrifice, memory and the choices that shape our lives.

Written with Hosseini’s characteristic emotional power and compassion, the novel is a sweeping, moving portrait of how families are torn apart and the bonds that endure across time and distance.

And the Mountains Echoed is a must-read for fans of Khaled Hosseini and literary fiction. It deals with loss, poverty and war, which may be emotional for some readers.