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A review by erinecarroll
And the Mountains Echoed by Khaled Hosseini
5.0
I agree with most of the reviewers on here than Khaled Hosseini is a brilliant storyteller. I knew by chapter 2 that this book was going to be a story that I would remember for a long time and that it was going to be my first 5 star rating for 2014.
The novel opened with Abdullah and Pari's father telling them a bedtime story. I believe that this story was foreshadowing of what was to come. In the bedtime story a fairytale creature "div" takes a child away from a family and in the end the the child ends up with a life of happiness and doesn't remember his old life. In a way this is what happened to Pari. Pari is sold to a wealthy family and is essentially given a better life because she won't be living in poverty. But wealth is not everything. Pari's new mother doesn't give her nearly as much love as Abdullah did. Toward the middle of the book, Nila says in an interview that she has come to view her daughter as her punishment. Completely opposite of Abdullah, he would have done anything to have his sister back and be able to raise her.
Some of my favorite parts of the book:
- Abdullah collecting various types of feathers for his little sister. He even traded his only pair of good shoes for a beautiful peacock feather because he knew it would make Pari so happy.
- Abdullah and Pari's special bond and unique love for eachother. Their relationship was much more than just brother/sister. Abdullah really took over the role of mother to Pari since their mother died during childbirth.
"This was his purpose, he believed, the reason God had made him, so he would be there to take care of Pari when He took away their mother."
- The separation of Abdullah and Pari was one of the saddest scenes in a novel that I have read in a long time.
"No one but God knows why those two had chosen each other. It was a mystery. I have never seen such affinity between two beings. In truth, Abdullah was as much father to Pari as sibling. When she was an infant, when she cried at night, it was he who sprung from the sleeping cot to walk her. It was he who took it upon himself to change her soiled linens, to bundle her up, to soother her back to sleep. His patience with her was boundless. He carried her around the village, showing her off as though she was the world's most coveted trophy."
I love how Hosseini intertwined so many different stories together. Each character was connected. Nabi, Markos, Abdullah, Pari, the doctor, every person's story was somehow connected. Hosseini has a way of making the reader care about the characters and their lives and feel the emotions that the characters are feeling at that moment. I felt like I was standing there witnessing the moment when Pari and Abdullah were being separated. This was such a beautiful and heartbreaking story and I know I will remember it for years to come.
Spoiler
The novel opened with Abdullah and Pari's father telling them a bedtime story. I believe that this story was foreshadowing of what was to come. In the bedtime story a fairytale creature "div" takes a child away from a family and in the end the the child ends up with a life of happiness and doesn't remember his old life. In a way this is what happened to Pari. Pari is sold to a wealthy family and is essentially given a better life because she won't be living in poverty. But wealth is not everything. Pari's new mother doesn't give her nearly as much love as Abdullah did. Toward the middle of the book, Nila says in an interview that she has come to view her daughter as her punishment. Completely opposite of Abdullah, he would have done anything to have his sister back and be able to raise her.
Some of my favorite parts of the book:
- Abdullah collecting various types of feathers for his little sister. He even traded his only pair of good shoes for a beautiful peacock feather because he knew it would make Pari so happy.
- Abdullah and Pari's special bond and unique love for eachother. Their relationship was much more than just brother/sister. Abdullah really took over the role of mother to Pari since their mother died during childbirth.
"This was his purpose, he believed, the reason God had made him, so he would be there to take care of Pari when He took away their mother."
- The separation of Abdullah and Pari was one of the saddest scenes in a novel that I have read in a long time.
"No one but God knows why those two had chosen each other. It was a mystery. I have never seen such affinity between two beings. In truth, Abdullah was as much father to Pari as sibling. When she was an infant, when she cried at night, it was he who sprung from the sleeping cot to walk her. It was he who took it upon himself to change her soiled linens, to bundle her up, to soother her back to sleep. His patience with her was boundless. He carried her around the village, showing her off as though she was the world's most coveted trophy."
I love how Hosseini intertwined so many different stories together. Each character was connected. Nabi, Markos, Abdullah, Pari, the doctor, every person's story was somehow connected. Hosseini has a way of making the reader care about the characters and their lives and feel the emotions that the characters are feeling at that moment. I felt like I was standing there witnessing the moment when Pari and Abdullah were being separated. This was such a beautiful and heartbreaking story and I know I will remember it for years to come.