There are a few bits below that may be "spoiler-like." I don't give away plot, but I do give away some of the feel, and there is a reference to the ending. So please read at your own risk.
Khaled Hosseini has done it again. Each of his books is the best one of his books, and the latest is no exception.
And the Mountains Echoed is an intricate web spun through a series of unforgettable characters.
The novel begins with a pair of young siblings in 1950s Afghanistan and then follows their lives and the lives they touch through several generations and around the globe. Hosseini's astounding grasp of the human spirit is yet again at the forefront, with the backdrop of social and political events we have come to expect from his works. But in comparison to
The Kite Runner and
A Thousand Splendid Suns, there are a few noteworthy differences in this one as well.
And the Mountain Echoes is a more retrospective novel than Hosseini's previous titles. What I mean by this is that many of the significant events that define these fascinating characters are not actually witnessed by the reader. And so, rather than enduring alongside the victim, we instead see the aftermath and long-term effects, many of which can take years to even manifest. In some ways, this approach is even more impactful.
Another difference with previous works is that
And the Mountains Echoed is devoid of resolution to several of its interconnected stories. We start with the children like the trunk of a tree which then grows upward and branches out. But each branch grows in its own direction, and many of them never stop growing as the novel concludes. It's unsatisfying, because as a reader you want to know more about how these characters' lives will turn out. Yet, in many ways, it is also a realistic end, because "real life" never comes to a defined ending. The story is still going on through the next generations.
And the Mountains Echoed is an epic saga in the tradition of Marquez'
One Hundred Years of Solitude. I can only assume that the ripple effect caused by each life, the echoing of each character's story through the subsequent generations, is what gave rise to the title of the book. As the story of ten-year-old Abdullah and three-year-old Pari ripples through the lives of their offspring and their offspring's offspring, so will Hosseini's latest masterpiece ripple through ever-expanding circles of readers. This novel won't soon be forgotten.