And the Mountain echoed is a saga about the unseen umbilical cord that ties the hearts of siblings, no matter how far they are drawn by circumstances, distances and time. It is about a ten year boy named Abdullah who is parted from his three years old sister Pari who is sold under dire circumstances to a childless couple in the city, and how the events leading to it and the ones thereon intertwine, part and define the fates of many characters related by blood, circumstances or just helpless love. It is a mesh of many short stories narrated from the perspectives of these characters across continents, set in time before, during and after the soviet invasion in Afganistan, and tied together as part of a higher plan, a larger quest for love and one’s identity and purpose in life.

And the Mountains Echoed
by Khaled Hosseini
Riverhead Books
May 2013

To me, reading this book was like reading 400 pages of poetry that makes you feel things you would feel while watching a movie or experiencing something in person. Khaled Hosseini is a master of emotions; he can make you feel all warm inside with the mention of a memory of a kid trading his shoes for a feather for his beloved sister’s collection, and at the same time have you plunge in despair on the reality of the siblings being forcibly parted to places that seem much farther in one’s imagination. I found each character in his book as imperfect and vast as a human being. As his previous two novels, the main themes that this book revolves around are love, loss, memories and moral obligations that are profoundly captured by his ability to express complex and ambiguous human emotions through stark comparisons and descriptions that certainly left an echo in my mind.

I highly recommend this book to all who love to flow with the tide of a book, get caught up in its music and be in the afterthoughts of the vastness and diversity of human emotions.

Shivani Ahuja is a freelance writer and an avid traveler who loves Art & Craft and all things Recycled. She is a post graduate from National Institute of Fashion Technology in India. Her writings can also be read at her blog.