Reviews with content warning for War - And the Mountains Echoed

and the mountains echoed tells the story of several families, all connected by afghanistan, over a period of 50 years. it starts with a folktale which can be seen as an allegory to the ways in which the lives of our characters will unfold. from the small fictional village of shadbagh, the lives of abdullah and pari unfold and spill into the lives of those as near as pakistan and as far as france and the united states. it is a story of descent, a story of effect and consequence, and ultimately a story of family (both the one we choose and the one we don’t). steeped in culture, i felt invited into a home unlike my own and made to feel welcome. enjoying the delicacies, language and customs unaccustomed to me. as a guest, i began my education, and as a friend i concluded it.

yes, this is the story of brother and sister, of parent and child, but it is so much more. it is love, and loss, and secrets, and friendship, and the attempt to reconcile the holes in our hearts that grow wider, and deeper, with age and experience.

the characters were slightly disjointed to me in the beginning, with an array of characters that probably required a mind map to keep up with how each one is connected to the other. the ever-changing POVs make it a little difficult to really sink into each character; however, as the chapters continue they become more established and easier to decipher.

overall, definitely something to add to my frequently forgotten favourites list.

Out beyond ideas
of wrongdoing and rightdoing,
there is a field.
I’ll meet you there.
- Jelaluddin Rumi, 13th Century

Content Warnings

karwc's review against another edition

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emotional hopeful inspiring reflective sad medium-paced

Plot- or character-driven? Character
Strong character development? Yes
Loveable characters? It's complicated
Diverse cast of characters? Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated

5.0

One of the best writers of our time. This book is poetry because of Hosseini’s beautiful style of writing. It will tear your heart in half like The Kite Runner did.

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grapefruitjuice's review against another edition

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emotional hopeful informative reflective sad medium-paced

Plot- or character-driven? Character
Strong character development? It's complicated
Loveable characters? It's complicated
Diverse cast of characters? Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated

4.5

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schnarlie's review against another edition

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dark emotional informative sad slow-paced

Plot- or character-driven? Character
Strong character development? It's complicated
Loveable characters? Yes
Diverse cast of characters? Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

4.0

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stacy_es's review against another edition

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challenging emotional reflective sad tense medium-paced

Plot- or character-driven? Character
Strong character development? It's complicated
Loveable characters? It's complicated
Diverse cast of characters? Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus? No

5.0

The moment Nabi wrote his letter this book became something completely different for me and it stayed like that till the end of it. I liked all these character lines interconnected, all these parallels between two sisters and cousins, mothers’ images, painful separation from parents, and just overall different life stories, too often hard and having sad endings. I wish I knew till the end the story of Iqbal’s son and his rich friend, and I wish I saw Pari helping him out with what she inherited. But it would definitely be too of happy end style. Anyways, it was undoubtedly good.

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ginbat's review against another edition

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emotional reflective sad slow-paced

Diverse cast of characters? Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

4.5

Hosseini's writing always has a poetic feeling to it, I would say this book is of course more "enjoyable" than The Kite Runner or A Thousand Splendid Suns if only because our characters are not subject to the same amount of violence. This story is more.. Floaty? The only thing keeping it from 5 stars is that the ending feels too much like ATSS.

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tahsintries's review against another edition

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4.0

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bandysbooks's review against another edition

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challenging dark emotional hopeful informative reflective tense slow-paced

Plot- or character-driven? Character
Strong character development? Yes
Loveable characters? Yes
Diverse cast of characters? Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

4.0

Khaled Hosseini is an incredibly talented author, so it's pretty much a given for me that I'm always going to like his books. That being said, I didn't love And The Mountains Echoed in the same way that I've loved some of his other books. It is definitely good and I don't want to put anyone off reading it. It just was slightly less impactful for me.

Some of the things that I did love about this particular story was the way that Hosseini uses traditional Middle Eastern storytelling as a reference point for the majority of the book. The story of the Djinn at the beginning really sets the expectations of what is to come.

What follows is the story of Abdullah and Pari as they grow apart over the years. Abdullah is a loving older brother, one who dutifully protects his younger sister. Though he loves her deeply, he isn't able to protect her from the poverty they both live in. The story that follows is sad, reflective, and shows how love can stay strong over decades.

All in all, if you've liked Hosseini's previous books, you should absolutely read this one as well.

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