And the Mountains Echoed

This is a great book - not the best of all his works but still very good.

Still enjoyable but I would say his earlier books were rather better.

The catalyst to the book's inter-connected stories is an impoverished Afghan father's choice to sell his 3 year old daughter Pari to preserve the rest of his family, devastating her 10 year old brother Abdullah. The stories chart the ensuing ripples across many decades and countries until at last, the two siblings find each other again, a poignant and bitter-sweet ending. Hosseini, an Afghan-American author, and young émigré himself, based the book on what he witnessed from his work with the UN Refugee Agency. I found the large cast of characters confusing to follow but otherwise enjoyed this and learnt more about Afghanistan issues and the complexity and sadness of diaspora.

I was very excited about reading this book as I loved The Kite Runner so much. I took it on holiday knowing I would get more time to get involved in the book and get to know the characters. It took a while to get into the novel - the descriptions were not as sumptuous as I remember from the previous two books and the characters were not as easy to get to know and become attached to. Overall I was disappointed as I never actually fell whole heartedly into the book which was my expectation. The country, the characters and the plot failed to come to life.