Rating: ****
Tags: Fiction / Literary, Lang:en
Publisher: Riverhead
Added: July 12, 2018
Modified: November 5, 2021
Summary
An unforgettable novel about finding a lost piece
of yourself in someone else.
Khaled Hosseini, the #1
New York Times–bestselling author of
The Kite Runner and
A Thousand Splendid Suns, has written a new novel
about how we love, how we take care of one another, and how
the choices we make resonate through generations. In this
tale revolving around not just parents and children but
brothers and sisters, cousins and caretakers, Hosseini
explores the many ways in which families nurture, wound,
betray, honor, and sacrifice for one another; and how often
we are surprised by the actions of those closest to us, at
the times that matter most. Following its characters and the
ramifications of their lives and choices and loves around the
globe—from Kabul to Paris to San Francisco to the Greek
island of Tinos—the story expands gradually outward,
becoming more emotionally complex and powerful with each
turning page.
An Amazon Best Book of the Month, May 2013:
Khaled Hosseini’s
And the Mountains Echoed begins simply enough, with
a father recounting a folktale to his two young children. The
tale is about a young boy who is taken by a
div (a sort of ogre), and how that fate might not be
as terrible as it first seems—a brilliant device that
firmly sets the tone for the rest of this sweeping,
heartbreaking, and ultimately uplifting novel. A day after he
tells the tale of the
div, the father gives away his own daughter to a
wealthy man in Kabul. What follows is a series of stories
within the story, told through multiple viewpoints, spanning
more than half a century, and shifting across continents. The
novel moves through war, separation, birth, death, deceit,
and love, illustrating again and again how people’s
actions, even the seemingly selfless ones, are shrouded in
ambiguity. This is a masterwork by a master storyteller.
—
Chris Schluep
“
And the Mountains Echoed opens like a thunderclap. .
. . [Hosseini] asks good, hard questions about the limits of
love. . . . Love, Hosseini seems to say, is the great
leveler, cutting through language, class, and identity.
No one in this gripping novel is immune to its
impact.”—
O, the Oprah Magazine
“With his third and most ambitious novel yet,
Hosseini makes it clear that he's not ready to rest on his
Big Name. . . . While it hits all the Hosseini sweet
spots—nostalgia, devastating details, triumph over the
odds—
And the Mountains Echoed covers more ground, both
geographically and emotionally, than his previous works. It's
not until Hosseini makes the novel small again, for the
poignant conclusion, that you fully appreciate what he's
accomplished.”—
Entertainment Weekly (A)
“Transports you whole into the otherworldly realms
Hosseini builds in Kabul, Paris, San Francisco, and the Greek
islands. . . . There's something primary and beautiful about
the simple desire to get lost in a story, and Hosseini is an
expert manufacturer of that experience.”—
Harper’s Bazaar
“Like a sculptor working in a soft medium,
[Hosseini] gently molds and shapes individual pieces that
ultimately fit together in a major work. . . . Family matters
in ways small and large in this novel. Whether or not the
connections are visible, they exist nevertheless. Hosseini
seems to be telling us that the way we care is who we are
and, ultimately, the face we show to life.”—
New York Daily News
"Readers' tears may fall by first chapter's end . . .
Introspective and perfectly paced, Hosseini's microcosmic
plot spares no expense with sensory details. Each character .
. . captivates. Hosseini skillfully weaves the tapestry with
universal elements: human fallibility, innate goodness,
perseverance, forgiveness, sexuality, jealousy,
companionship, and joy. Yet his words are never sugarcoated:
The brutality of life is on display, and people are shown
just as they are, for better or worse. Poverty and gender
roles leave scars, while shifting points of view reveal
Hosseini's prism of truth. The heartbreaks are not intended
for shock value, but they do linger. And the Mountains Echoed
resonates to the core.”—
Austin Chronicle
“Like [Hosseini’s] previous books, the new
novel is a complex mosaic, a portrait of the Afghan diaspora
as it is folded into the West and of those left behind. . . .
The book is elevated by a strong sense of parable and some
finely drawn characters and is inventively constructed as it
leaps from voice to voice.”—
Esquire
“Devoted readers will find it worth the
wait.”—
Patriot Ledger
“Hosseini returns with an instantly relatable novel
that follows generations of a troubled family across the
Middle East.”—
Marie Claire
“The beautiful writing, full of universal truths of
loss and identity, makes each section a jewel . . .
Hosseini’s eye for detail and emotional geography makes
this a haunting read.”—
Publishers Weekly
“Captivating and affecting . . . A masterful and
compassionate storyteller, Hosseini traces the traumas and
scarring of tyranny, war, crime, lies, and illness in the
intricately interconnected, heartbreaking, and transcendent
lives of his vibrantly realized characters to create a grand
and encompassing tree of life.”—
Booklist (starred review)
“Hosseini weaves a gorgeous tapestry of disparate
characters joined by threads of blood and fate. . . . In this
uplifting and deeply satisfying book, Hosseini displays an
optimism not so obvious in his previous works. Readers will
be clamoring for it.”—
Library Journal (starred review)
“In
And the Mountains Echoed, Khaled Hosseini presents a
multitude of windows into the souls affected by these events.
The novel's rich kaleidoscope of images coalesces around one
theme: the powerful and often excruciating legacy of family
ties within the maelstrom of history.”—
Shelf Awareness
“Fiction Top Pick . . . Engrossing . . . Ultimately,
And the Mountains Echoed is about the human endeavor
to transcend difference.”—
Bookpage
Amazon.com Review
Review