Ahappybooksmuggler: THE MOUNTAIN ECHOED

"The mountain echoed" is the third book written by Khaled Hosseini. It is one of the different books written by him in a different perspective. All nine chapters are written with the narration of each character. The story is told by nine different characters in each chapter and all the characters are related to each other.

The foundation of this book is built on the relationship of a 10 years old boy Abdullah and a 3 years old girl Pari. The siblings have a strong bond after their mother had died. Abdullah was more like a father to Pari than his brother.

In this book Khaled Hosseini focus on siblings and their relationship. The foundation of the story lies with the relationship of Abdullah and Pari, their step mother Parwana and her sister Masooma and an Afghan-American doctor Idris and his cousin Timur.

Every time I read Khaled Hosseini's book, the story made me into tears that how He and all the Afghans have suffered during the most difficult period of war. This book is not directly associated with Taliban and war instead it is written on how the families suffered after war.

The struggles of the characters in this book were personal and unrelated to the political turmoil in Afghanistan. And these lines of Hosseini turn me down into tears: " I hope a day will come when we write about Afghanistan, when we can speak about Afghanistan in a context outside of the wars and the struggles of the last 30 years. In some way I think this book is an attempt to do that."

The novel opens with the story of Abdullah and Pari's. As I already mentioned that Abdullah and Pari had a strong bond, after their mother had died it was Abdullah who has raised Pari like a father. Their father Saboor decided to sell her daughter to a wealthy childhood family in Kabul.

Saboor didn't want Abdullah to come with him and Pari but he insisted to come. On their way to Kabul Saboor told his children a story about another poor farmer who was forced to give up his beloved child and that the adopted child was happy in his life. The moral of the story was: "how at times of need, one has to sacrifice a finger to save the hand."

When Abdullah realizes what is happening to her sister he pleads and wails against Saboor's rule that he is not allowed to cry in Kabul. Mr's Wahdati the adopted mother assure him that it is best for Pari and he will understand it when he will be older.

Another chapter was narrated by Parwana and her beautiful sister Masooma. Parwana was a less favored child so in a flash of jealousy, she pushed Masooma out of the tree which made her paraplegic. After their parents death Parwana took care of her sister. Masooma asked Parwana to help her commit suicide so she would marry Saboor.

Parwana and Masooma had a brother Nabi who worked for Mr.Wahdati the adopted father of Pari. Nabi became infatuated with Mr.Wahdati's wife Nila. After Nila told him about his inability to have children, Nabi arranged for Pari to be sold to that childless couple. After Pari was sold to the couple Nabi was no longer welcomed to the village.

With the passing years several incidents happened that further drifted apart the two siblings. Abdullah leaves Afghanistan. Mr,Wahdati suffered a stroke and Nila took Pari and left him to Nabi and move to Paris, where her mother lives.

Before leaving Paris she found Mr,Wahdati's sketch books in which he had drawn Nabi several times which shows that he loved Nabi so much and he was so important to him than his own wife. Nabi took care of Mr,Wahdati for over 50 years. Mr,Wahdati even gave all his assets to Nabi.

After Mr.Wahdati's death Nabi took his assets as a mandate and later before his death he named all his assets to Pari who was the real owner of all the things left by Mr.Wahdati. In this part of story you will also learn about the childhood of two cousins Idris and Timur.

One character that has stuck with me was Nila Wahadati, Pari's adopted mother. She was a well-known poet. The most interesting part was the opening of chapter VI opens with Nila Wahdati's interview. Khaled Hosseini portrays one the most amazing poets of Afghanistan in his novel to show that poetry is an asset of every Afghan women. In 1974, Nila Wahdati committed suicide.

With the broken threads which were started to emerge in the end Pari came to know that he was not Nila Wahdati's biological daughter and she had her own family in Afghanistan. She came to know about her brother whom she later found and gave him a visit.

Many times I found this novel disconnected because every character in this novel has a story to tell. The struggles they face and the heartbreaking challenges they have faced in their life. It is story of hope, hope of meeting your loved ones, hope of reuniting with your family.

I will recommend this novel to you as it is an epic tale of families suffering and facing hardhips at the most difficult time in their lives. Go ahead and read it.