When I came across “Do you even know how strong God has made you?…How strong and good He has made you?” as I read this book, I stopped. I placed the book, open but down turned, on my thighs as I sat in bed and a tear came to my right eye. Despite the many tragic happenings in this book, the above sentences packed a punch that took my breath away. It got me thinking about how important it is that we recognize who we are and often times, it begins with a simple question.
Like the previous best-selling books by Khaled Hosseini (‘The Kite Runner’ and ‘A Thousand Splendid Suns’), the setting is Afghanistan, Pakistan and the United States. The timing crosses the early 50s to the later part of the 2000s. The themes are identical – War, its aftereffects, poverty, betrayal, death, patriarchy, religion and many more. In ‘And The Mountains Echoed’, we are presented with close siblings, Pari and Abdullah, who are painfully separated and the many years in between before their paths cross. A lot happens in the time in-between this separation that makes up the bulk of this book.
Unlike Khaled’s other two books, this particular book took me a long time to read.It took me a whooping 2.5 months to get through it as opposed to a couple days. Now, it didn’t take me so long because something’s wrong with the narration or writing of the book. It was simply because life was happening to me and I had no time to finish it. Regardless, it is a great read and I recommend it. On a scale of 1-5, I give it a solid 4.
It's Fifi 