Goodreads Book Review: And the Mountains Echoed

And the Mountains Echoed by Khaled Hosseini
My rating: 3 of 5 stars

I loved Khaled Hossieni's debut novel, The Kite Runner. I liked his second novel, A Thousand Splendid Suns, even better, earning it a place on my list of favorite books. So I was a little disappointed with his third novel, And The Mountains Echoed.. Don't get me wrong, Hosseini is still an outstanding writer, with emotional resonance, memorable and relatable characters, and a strong sense of place. However, with this third book, he simply tries to do too much, bogging down the story with too many characters, uneven pacing, and too many shifts in time, place, and narration.

At it's basis, And the Mountains Echoed is the story of a love between siblings that withstands trails of time and separation, and as such, it is a moving story. It opens in 1952, when the siblings in question, Abdullah and Pari, are ten and three respectively, living in an impoverished Afghan village.

But from there, Hosseini expands the story by telling it from the perspectives of other characters in other times and places. These range from a relative of Abdullah and Pari's who lives for decades in Kabul to seemingly unconnected characters in present-day Greece and northern California. The reader does come to realize that these characters and their lives are in fact connected, but the shifting in time and place just add confusion. Yes, the characters are compelling, but as soon as I would become fully immersed in one story, Hosseini shifted to another. And the pacing was uneven, with certain events in characters' lives given too much time and others breezed over.

There are things in And The Mountains Echoed that Hosseini still does very well. All his settings come to life, not just his native Afghanistan but Greece, California, and Europe as well. And he is sensitive to the various social and political climates in which his story is set. It is when his characters straddle multiple worlds - as with characters who have immigrated from Afghanistan to Paris and California - that he is at his most compelling.

Finally, the love and loyalty Hosseini's characters have for each other here, and the moral complexity of their decisions, is moving. At its basis, And The Mountains Echoed is a heartwarming story. But it would have been even more moving if it had been simpler and sweeter.


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