And The Mountains Echoed by Khaled Hosseini

". . . draws the reader in. . ."

Blood transcends man-made barriers and calls to its own. The ties that bind extend well into adulthood for a sister and a brother, pulled apart by a father’s necessity and a couples’ greed. Pari and Abdullah lose their mother and soon acquire a stepmother. She is kind and has more children, putting an extra strain on her husband’s meager wages. The children’s Uncle Nabi works for a wealthy couple in Kabul and offers his brother a job for a favor. His employers yearn for a child, especially the woman. They select four year old Pari to stay with them as their daughter. No explanation is offered to her confused brother. So starts the decades’ long separation of the siblings. The couple divorces and the woman takes Pari to Paris. Pari is so young when the separation began, she barely remembers she has a brother. Slowly, events are set into motion to bring them back together. The story offers background and follows the children, the couple, the parents, the stepmother, and the uncle as the lies unfold about Pari’s whereabouts and acquisition. As the adults die off through the years, the complications and twists of their lives add to the urgency. Two wars in Afghanistan pull their worlds farther apart. Will the children, living thousands of miles away, find each other and rekindle the sense of security ripped from them by the adults in their lives?

And The Mountains Echoed is not as emotionally wrenching as his previous books, but Hosseini draws the reader in to care for the children and hope for a sweet reunion.

Reviewer: K. T. Sullivan