a b c Merschel, Michael (June 7, 2013). "Khaled Hosseini struggled with 'And the Mountains Echoed' ". Dallas News . Retrieved September 5, 2013. Nila Wahdati is a young French-Afghan woman renowned for her sexually charged poetry who is married off to a wealthy Kabul businessman. According to Hosseini, many aspects of her character were derived from women he encountered during parties his parents hosted in Kabul in the 1970s, many of whom he recalls as "beautiful, very outspoken, temperamental...drinking freely, smoking". [16] At some point prior to the beginning of the story, she was apparently sterilized while undergoing treatment for an illness, leading her to buy Pari as an adopted daughter. Described as unusually beautiful and discontent, she later relocates to Paris following her husband's stroke and eventually commits suicide. Hosseini explained that he was unconcerned with making Nila likable—"I just wanted her to be real – full of anger and ambition and insight and frailty and narcissism." [16] Hosseini weaves a gorgeous tapestry of disparate characters joined by threads of blood and fate. . . . In this uplifting and deeply satisfying book, Hosseini displays an optimism not so obvious in his previous works. Readers will be clamoring for it.”— Library Journal (starred review) Abdullah, the son of Saboor, first appears in the novel as a young child, while at the end of the book, he’s an old man, succumbing to dementia. The only constant in his life…

Khaled Hosseini's tour for AND THE MOUNTAINS ECHOED announced exclusively by Entertainment Weekly!". Riverhead Books. February 21, 2013. Archived from the original on September 28, 2013 . Retrieved September 5, 2013. And the Mountains Echoed study guide contains a biography of Khaled Hosseini, literature essays, quiz questions, major themes, characters, and a full summary and analysis. Two homes form twin focal points for the novel: the family home of Saboor, Abdullah, and Pari—and later Iqbal and Gholam—in Shadbagh; and the grand house initially owned by Suleiman in Kabul. Compare the homes and the roles they play in the novel. Who has claims to each house? What are those claims based on? How do the questions of ownership complicate how the characters relate to one another?Hughes, Kim (May 16, 2013). "And the Mountains Echoed by Khaled Hosseini: Review". The Star . Retrieved August 24, 2013. With his third and most ambitious novel yet, Hosseini makes it clear that he’s not ready to rest on his Big Name. . . . While it hits all the Hosseini sweet spots—nostalgia, devastating details, triumph over the odds— And the Mountains Echoed covers more ground, both geographically and emotionally, than his previous works. It’s not until Hosseini makes the novel small again, for the poignant conclusion, that you fully appreciate what he’s accomplished.”— Entertainment Weekly (A) They tell me I must wade into waters, where I will soon drown. Before I march in, I leave this on the shore for you. I pray you find it, sister, so you will know what was in my heart as I went under.”

Wrought with mastery, And the Mountains Echoed is not just a well spun tale, but an accomplishment of the most elusive of literary challenges—the humanization of a war ravaged population in the eyes of the very people complicit in their ruin.”— Daily Beast An Afghan immigrant who works as a doctor in the United States, Dr. Idris Bashiri is a quiet, shy, and somewhat self-righteous young man. He resents his cousin, Timur Bashiri, for being more successful… You took from me my youngest son,” Baba Ayub replied. “He was in the world the dearest thing to me.” So where did the div take the children to? To its fort, which sat atop a steep mountain. The div’s fort was very far from Maidan Sabz. Valleys, several deserts, and two mountain chains had to be cleared before you could reach it. And what sane person would, only to meet death? They said the fort was full of dungeons where cleavers hung from walls. Meat hooks dangled from ceilings. They said there were giant skewers and fire pits. They said that if it caught a trespasser, the div was known to overcome its aversion to adult meat.A story is like a moving train," as Hosseini has one of his many tale-telling characters remark, "no matter where you hop onboard, you are bound to reach your destination sooner or later." True enough, but Hosseini isn't restricted to any single route, or mode of transport. He is a master of that deeper narrative principle: get your audience where they want to go, but not in the way they expect. The div grunted again and studied Baba Ayub thoughtfully. After a time, it said, Very well, then. I will grant you your duel. But first I ask that you follow me. So there it is, boy. That’s the end of it. I have nothing more to say. And now it really is late and I am tired, and your sister and I have to wake at dawn. So blow out your candle. Lay your head down and close your eyes. Sleep well, boy. We’ll say our good-byes in the morning. his most assured and emotionally gripping story yet, more fluent and ambitious than The Kite Runner, more narratively complex than A Thousand Splendid Suns…Mr. Hosseini's narrative gifts have deepened over the years, enabling him to anchor firmly the more maudlin aspects of his tale in genuine emotion and fine-grained details. And so we finish this novel with an intimate understanding of who his characters are and how they've defined themselves over the years through the choices they have made between duty and freedom, familial responsibilities and independence, loyalty to home and exile abroad. The New York Times - Michiko Kakutani The book raises many deep questions about the wavering line between right and wrong, and whether it is possible to be purely "good"—or purely "bad." What do you think after reading the novel: Are good intentions enough to create good deeds? Can positive actions come from selfish motivations? Can bad come from positive intent? How do you think this novel would define a good person? How would you define one?

A calm, intelligent woman who appears during Chapter Eight. Ever since being bitten by a dog as a child, Thalia has borne a brutal facial injury, one that makes the people in her life uncomfortable… The third chapter is told from the perspective of Parwana, Saboor’s second wife, and Abdullah and Pari’s stepmother. Parwana—as the chapter begins, a single woman, not yet married to Saboor—takes care of her beautiful twin sister, Masooma, who has recently had a horrible accident, and can no longer walk. While they were growing up, Parwana and Masooma were competitive with one another, and Parwana in particular resented Masooma for being prettier and more popular than she. Parwana developed a crush on Saboor, then a young, handsome man. Because Parwana was shy and cautious, Masooma was able to “swoop in” and claim Saboor for herself. Masooma and Saboor became a serious couple, and a few years later, they announced their engagement. Parwana was so jealous that she caused Masooma to fall from a tall tree, causing the injury that left her a paraplegic. For the next few years, Parwana, overcome with guilt, took care of Masooma at all times. Meanwhile, Saboor married another woman, who died while giving birth to Pari. As the chapter comes “full circle,” Parwana learns that Saboor is interested in remarrying, and wants to court her. Masooma, who senses that Parwana and Saboor may become a couple, tells Parwana to leave her. At first, Parwana is reluctant to abandon her sister. Eventually, however, she decides to marry Saboor. She leaves Masooma, and never sees her again. a b c Smith, Wendy (May 23, 2013). "Khaled Hosseini sets 'And the Mountains Echoed' against Afghan history". Los Angeles Times . Retrieved August 24, 2013.

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The son of Iqbal ( Abdullah’s half-brother), Gholam is a clever, savvy teenager who befriends Adel during Chapter Seven of the novel. Gholam knows from his father that The Commander, Adel’s father, is… Like a sculptor working in a soft medium, [Hosseini] gently molds and shapes individual pieces that ultimately fit together in a major work. . . . Family matters in ways small and large in this novel. Whether or not the connections are visible, they exist nevertheless. Hosseini seems to be telling us that the way we care is who we are and, ultimately, the face we show to life.”— New York Daily News A funny, uplifting novel about a boy's journey through New York in the aftermath of September 11th from one of today's most celebrated writers. Martin Wrenn, Jill (June 24, 2013). "Khaled Hosseini on parenthood and political asylum". CNN . Retrieved September 5, 2013.

Your son does not remember you, the div continued. This is his life now, and you saw for yourself his happiness. He is provided here with the finest food and clothes, with friendship and affection. He receives tutoring in the arts and languages and in the sciences, and in the ways of wisdom and charity. He wants for nothing. Someday, when he is a man, he may choose to leave, and he shall be free to do so. I suspect he will touch many lives with his kindness and bring happiness to those trapped in sorrow. He walked for many, many days. He walked until the sun was a faint red glow in the distance. Nights, he slept in caves as the wind whistled outside. Or else he slept beside rivers and beneath trees and among the cover of boulders. He ate his bread, and then he ate what he could find—wild berries, mushrooms, fish that he caught with his bare hands from streams—and some days he didn’t eat at all. But still he walked. When passersby asked where he was going, he told them, and some laughed, some hurried past for fear he was a madman, and some prayed for him, as they too had lost a child to the div. Baba Ayub kept his head down and walked. When his shoes fell apart, he fastened them to his feet with strings, and when the strings tore he pushed forward on bare feet. In this way, he traveled across deserts and valleys and mountains.Pari is Abdullah's younger sister who, at the age of three, is sold by her father Saboor to the wealthy Wahdati couple in Kabul. She and Abdullah are portrayed as having an unusually close relationship during her early years, though she forgets him along with the rest of her biological family following her adoption. She spends her adolescence and adulthood in France following her adoptive father's stroke and eventually becomes aware of her history through a posthumous letter from her uncle Nabi, who had arranged for her to be sold as a child. When she is finally reunited with Abdullah, he is unable to remember her due to his Alzheimer's. "I could see that if the reunion were to occur, it would occur on these terms and it wouldn't be the reunion we'd expect and perhaps the one we want," Hosseini explained. [16] Medley, Mark (May 13, 2013). "Relative unease: Khaled Hosseini discusses And The Mountains Echoed". National Post . Retrieved September 5, 2013. When the rains stopped, the village had some work to do. Several mud walls had melted, and a few of the roofs sagged, and entire sections of farmland had turned into swamps. But after the misery of the devastating drought, the people of Maidan Sabz weren’t about to complain. Walls were reerected, roofs repaired, and irrigation canals drained. That fall, Baba Ayub produced the most plentiful crop of pistachios of his life, and, indeed, the year after that, and the one following, his crops increased in both size and quality. In the great cities where he sold his goods, Baba Ayub sat proudly behind pyramids of his pistachios and beamed like the happiest man who walked the earth. No drought ever came to Maidan Sabz again.