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A review by katykelly
And the Mountains Echoed by Khaled Hosseini
5.0
This is another wonderful story from Hosseini. It's not as overtly tragic (and certainly not violent) as his other two works, but it's incredibly moving and sad and just beautiful to read.
Plot-wise it's hard to contain the novel in a few words. The book centres around one event that tears into the lives of Abdullah and his little sister Pari, poor Afghan children whose sibling love for each other remains, despite all that happens.
The structure of time is played with, and Abdullah and Pari's story sits on the periphery of an overarching tale of love, loss, parents, children, death, innocence lost, loyalty and friendship. We meet several connected characters in the book, at two central points in time. As one character eloquently describes this: "the years...are rapidly folding over one another again and again, time accordioning itself down". At times it's almost like a set of short stories connected by a few central characters and their stories. Each is beautiful, some very sad indeed. When halfway through one chapter a character you know appears, you see the links between their tales and a whole dot-to-dot of the overall picture begins to take shape.
There's no need to describe the plot in depth, it's a plot that you need to unravel for yourself. Each chapter is narrated by someone new, and each can take time to think through to work out just who is talking and how they relate to known characters. Hosseini makes you work to understand.
It's a very intelligent piece of writing. I am still debating with myself if it tops 'The Kite Runner' and in terms of style it just may do. If you've read his others, you'll not be disappointed with this long-awaited volume.
Plot-wise it's hard to contain the novel in a few words. The book centres around one event that tears into the lives of Abdullah and his little sister Pari, poor Afghan children whose sibling love for each other remains, despite all that happens.
The structure of time is played with, and Abdullah and Pari's story sits on the periphery of an overarching tale of love, loss, parents, children, death, innocence lost, loyalty and friendship. We meet several connected characters in the book, at two central points in time. As one character eloquently describes this: "the years...are rapidly folding over one another again and again, time accordioning itself down". At times it's almost like a set of short stories connected by a few central characters and their stories. Each is beautiful, some very sad indeed. When halfway through one chapter a character you know appears, you see the links between their tales and a whole dot-to-dot of the overall picture begins to take shape.
There's no need to describe the plot in depth, it's a plot that you need to unravel for yourself. Each chapter is narrated by someone new, and each can take time to think through to work out just who is talking and how they relate to known characters. Hosseini makes you work to understand.
It's a very intelligent piece of writing. I am still debating with myself if it tops 'The Kite Runner' and in terms of style it just may do. If you've read his others, you'll not be disappointed with this long-awaited volume.