AND THE MOUNTAINS ECHOED

“I found a sad little fairy

Beneath the shade of a paper tree

I know a sad little fairy

Who was blown away by the wind one night”

People are just people. They are instinctive, even incomprehensible. They get caught in a tangled web of relationships and regrettable decisions. And then they always look back and think – ‘surely, if this had not happened, that would not either, and maybe I wouldn’t be here’. At the end of the day, they are all but human. I think it’s a lesson in itself; a reminder of the consequences of all our actions, no matter how big or small. And I think that is what Khaled Hosseini wants us to really see through his new book, ‘And the Mountains echoed’.

Hosseini is a writer who has the exceptional courage to not see ‘his’ world, the way the rest of us do. So when he writes about Afghanistan in the book, there is no pity, only a subtle pride. His women are neither miserly cowards, nor stereotypically fearless. They are just human, women with a past and a heart full of secrets. Even in this book, his honesty and gripping storytelling powers have not diminished one bit. Only this time, he takes you across multiple locales and timelines. It seems like a giant puzzle when you’re in the middle. Central to the plot is the Afghan brother-sister duo, Pari and Abdullah. There is also the Afghan-French poetess Nila Wahdati, Afghan-American cousins Idris and Timur, then the Greek doctor, Markos Varvaris; and even a Jihadist in the story. The more people you come across, the more complex the web gets. And then, when you are ‘finally’ getting used to the randomness of the popping narratives, something magical happens. It all comes together! It’s like unraveling a secret piece-by-piece.

By the end, you have devoured the book and collected all the random pieces of the puzzle, to see the bigger picture. And guess what, because it was none other than Hosseini, you realize you were waiting for this magic to happen all along!

- by  Deepannita