Khaled Hosseini is a master storyteller of enormous proportions, as those of us who've read any of his past novels already know. He spins a well crafted yarn that draws the reader in with ease, gently dropping one heart breaking tale after another, then leaving us with empty anticipation for neat, happy resolutions that never appear. And the Mountains Echoed does not disappoint. It reads pleasantly and with little effort, like honey dripping from a jar. Anybody looking for a long, enjoyable book that will keep them eager to read the next page will find this tome to be a solid choice.
The novel takes place in several places: Afghanistan, Greece, France and the United States. It also skips back and forth in time some, but the author is kind enough to point out the current year in each chapter's heading. Hosseini paints beautiful images wherever he takes us, and the details in the settings alone make this book worth the read. Every scene has its own ambience, with specific sounds and scents that conjure lovely or dismal stages. It takes very little imagination on the reader's part to feel and see his descriptions, they're so vivid and well thought out.
In an apparent effort to stray from the less than flattering image Afghanistan currently enjoys in the West, Hosseini mostly steers clear from talk of the Taliban He speaks very little of terrorism in general, for that matter. Yet a good portion of the novel takes place in post September 11 Afghanistan. The result is a less skewed view of a volatile region than the one we tend to get in the media, which is a refreshing change.
Despite all the violence that is taking place there, most Afghans continue to live their lives one day at a time, doing what they need to get by. It's fairly easy to lose sight of that when you're merely peeking in from the outside.
I enjoyed reading this book and I highly recommend it to others.
Read from July 21 to 24, 2013
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