Book Review: And the Mountains Echoed
“I found a sad little fairy
Beneath the shade of a paper tree
I know a sad little fairy
Who was blown away by the wind one night.”
Have you ever wondered about where you would end up if it weren’t for your family and their sacrifices? About the amount of love and the mutual bond shared? Khaled Hosseini, the author of this heartwarming, yet emotional story, illustrates these themes.
Set in Kabul, Afghanistan, 10-year-old Abdullah would give up the world to see his younger sister, Pari, happy and by his side. He is always on the hunt for exotic and colorful feathers to give to his sister, since she collects them in her old, tin, tea box.
The story orbits around one major sacrifice that their father has to take for the sake of finding a job, and that eventually changes Abdullah and Pari’s fate. Furthermore, when a deal was made by the father and the new employer, Abdullah was determined to never separate from Pari. Simultaneously, Hosseini portrays the life that each sibling had to face through a series of connected events that conjoin like a symphony filled with hope, determination, and love, but also heartbreak and a race against time.
“It’s a funny thing…but people mostly have it backward. They think they live by what they want. But really, what guides them is what they're afraid of. What they don't want.”
And the Mountains Echoed is a book that should be valued for its vividly written plot, which has given me a sense of belonging to my family. It also added to my fear of straying away from them. Hosseini’s storytelling skills have left me in absolute awe and tears, because of how he depicted real-life incidents that still take place in our time.
Unfortunately, there is no movie for this book, but I would hands-down recommend the story to anyone who is looking for a zealous read! ◆
Majdolin is an aspiring writer and has recently decided to start sharing her work in order to expand her horizons. When she's not writing, she either reads history, poetry, or young adult books, or watches documentaries. Contact Majdolin through: @majdolin101 on Twitter.