And the Mountains Echoed

It was the last week of June and I had been reading for the last couple of days when suddenly I snapped my book close, yelled, “I won’t read you”, threw it on the bed, grabbed my phone, put on my shoes, announced than I’m going for a walk and left swiftly.

It was drizzling, and I was fuming…I walked quietly for a while and then called my friend Anshula,

“I hate Khaled Hosseini! What does he think of himself? He doesn’t know how to write, he is playing with people’s emotions! Its not funny…!!” I yelled that in a breath.

Anshula calmly asked me, “Which book Aditi?”

“And The Mountains Echoed….”

“Oh that…is my favourite book! I cried so much in the end..”

“I don’t care!” I snapped “I hate him, he is torturing me. He starts telling a story, brings me to the suspense and then changes the topic! What does he thinks of himself he is?! Huh?”

“Khaled Housseini obviously”

“Anshulaaaa!”

“Hahahaha…take a break”

This was my very first Khaled Houssini book. This book reminds me of the movie, “Children of Heaven” which is again a heart winning story of an elder brother and his little sister.

This book is about two inseperable siblings, Abdullah 10 and his toddler sister Pari 3 (who calls him Abollah). Unconditional love which remains throughout their lifetime and beyond, unconditional love which remains in oblivion and consciousness. Yet, “Sometimes a finger must be cut to save the hand…”

His style of writing is beautiful and intriguing, nothing like anything I have read before, however it’s narration is complex. After talking to Anshula, I came to the conclusion that it was my circumstances that were driving me crazy, not the Author!

It’s not a long cohesive story, but a potpourri of shorter stories filled with smaller instances, connected to each other in a very different way.

The Author didn’t sweep me off my feet but it was like I fell in love, but I didn’t realize that I did coz it was so gradual and absorbing. When I finished reading this book, I was in a car with Pappa, so I gulped and pushed back my tears. And I think this is one of the best stories have and I will ever read. You’d definitely want to give him a warm hug after reading this story.

Thank you Pranav and Anshula for helping me read this book.