And The Mountains Echoed by Khaled Hosseini 5 Stars

Hosseini is a master story teller. His latest novel is an epic tale covering six decades flung across four countries. This effort is not as strong as the Kite Runner or A Thousand Splendid Suns. However, it still earns a 5 star rating from me, because even a weaker effort by this master story teller is superior to the best efforts of lesser writers. In the Kite Runner Hosseini dealt with relationships between fathers and sons. In A thousand Splendid sons his tale concerns the relaitonsips between mothers and daughters. In And the Mountains Echoed, he concentrates on relationships between siblings. The main thread which carries through the novel is the relationship between Abdullah and his young sister, Pari. The tale begins with a poor laborer, Saboor, who tries to scratch out a living for his family in Shadbagh, a subsistence village in Afghanistan. His strikingly beautiful wife bears him a son, Abdullah. During the childbirth of their daughter Pari, she dies. Saboor is left with an infant and a ten year old to raise on his own. Abdullah, the ten year old brother, takes it upon himself to mother his motherless sister Pari. They are extremely close. Saboor remarries a plain but good woman. Her much prettier older sister is originally promised to Sapoor. However, she meets with an accident at the hand of her younger sister and eventually dies. The author delves into the facts of that situation two to feature their complicated sisterly relationship. Sapoor’s second wife cares for his two children and bears him another son. Because of poverty, lack of plentiful water, and a particularly cold winter, her male infant perishes. It was common in these villages for a percentage of the children to perish before their first birthday due to poverty and harsh living conditions. Saboor’s second wife again becomes pregnant and delivers another boy. Saboor is faced with a dilemma. He cannot keep the three children alive through a particularly cold winter. His brother-in-law, Nabi works in Kabul for a wealthy man and his wife, Nila and Suleiman Wahdati. They cannot have children. Nabi arranges for Saboor to sell his daughter, Pari to this wealthy couple. They would like to raise her as their daughter. This solution seems terrible to the outsider. However, when faced with perhaps losing all his children to cold and famine as opposed to selling one to a wealthy family where she will have a life of privilege his choice does not seem so terrible. It is actually an act of love and it breaks Sapoor’s heart to separate from his daughter. After all Nabi drives to their village in a beautiful American car well dressed and well fed. He was lucky to have found a position that gave him security and dignity. His daughter will fare better as the daughter of Nadi’s wealthy employer than as the daughter of an impoverished laborer. At the opening of the novel, we are told an allegorical fairy tale regarding a Div, the Aphgani version of a monster. The allegory mirrors what Sapoor must do with his small daughter, Pari. Saboor could make the journey to Kabul comfortably in Nabi’s employer’s car. However, he chooses to make the trip on foot over three days. During this long trek through the desert, Saboor, a master story teller, tells his children mystical allegorical tales that foreshadow the events which will occur in Kabul at the end of their journey. The three of them camp out beneath the stars and bond for the last time. Abdullaah has no idea what is to come. He introduces his two children to the Wahdatis and Abudullah who has never seen a house like theirs is mesmerized by the abundance of consumer goods and food. He is impressed by the bounty he finds in Kabul. However, at last Saboor separates his two children by his first wife leaving Pari with the couple in Kabul and returning with his son to Shadbagh. Abdullah realizing what his father has done is distraught and beside himself. He feels that he left a part of himself in Kabul. Nila a beautiful and well known Farsi poet is the daughter of a French mother who died when she was ten and a devoted Afghani father. She was raised in a far more liberal household than most Afghan women, and she grew up speaking French as well as Farsi. Nila’s marriage has always been one of convenience and there was never any love between Nila and Suleiman. As it turns out Suleiman really loves his chauffer Nadi who does not return those romantic feelings. Suleiman suffers a stroke and becomes disabled. Leaving him in the capable hands of his chauffer, Nadi, Nila takes six year old Pari and moves to Paris, France. She never returns to Afghanistan. Pari and Abdullah seem destined to be forever separated. Pari thrives in France but she always senses that a part of her is missing. She does not know why that feeling persists. Now the story takes us back to Kabul. After the American invasion of Afghanistan there is a great need for doctors to repair the war wounds suffered by the civilian population. A Greek plastic surgeon, Markos, eschews a private lucrative practice and donates his services to the war weary Afghani citizens. He has rented Nila and Suleiman’s house which is still cared for by Abdullah’s step-uncle, Nadi. Nadi inherited the property when Suleiman died as compensation for his years of caring for Suleiman as well as because Nadi was Suleiman’s great love. Nadi and Markos become friends. Markos has devoted his life to repairing the faces of people who suffer devastating losses in the Afghani wars. He too has an interesting back story that concerns a relationship with a severely disfigured adopted sister remaining with his mother in their small village. Upon his death Nadi leaves a letter for the Greek doctor that reveals Pari’s true Identity and the existence of her brother, Abdullah. Abdullah is now in San Francisco. Pari is the mother of three and the grandmother of many. This novel takes place in the cultural crossroads that is Afghanistan in the midst of one upheaval after another. It takes place among tribal fractious fighting, invasions by communists and then the Taliban. The end of this novel is not as satisfying as Hosseini’s prior books, but it is still worth reading. The characters are complete and well drawn. The action is dramatic and heartbreaking. The times and places are filled with magical sources for fantastic story telling. I believe that this novel would make a good film. I could not put it down and it was a page turner for me.