Tales from a tortured land
Tanzin Sultana feels let down by an author
Those who have already read the works of Khaled Hosseini know of his ability to weave tales with relatable characters that his readers feel kinship with. Hosseini's third book, And the Mountains Echoed, is no different. The story opens with the tale of a div that tears a family apart; a tale that a man, Saboor, is telling his son, Abdullah, and daughter Pari. The short tale centring on a hardworking farmer, Baba Ayub, his son, little Qais, and a div gives us a snapshot of the book.
The main story opens in the fall of 1952 in Afghanistan with the separation of Abdullah and his little sister Pari. Unable to support his family of five, Saboor gives Pari up to a wealthy Afghan couple, thus separating her from her brother. Abdullah, with Pari gone, feels alienated from everything he has known and he sets out for the unknown.
From here on in the book, Hosseini plays with time, taking us back in the past one moment and the next we are leaping across years. Hosseini tells his tale over a stretch of 61 years, starting from 1949 and going all the way to 2010. Even with the time distortion, Hosseini does not lose the flow of his story. The tale does not only stretch over years but also across borders. The story, beginning in Afghanistan, goes through many places, like Tinos in Greece, the city of love, Paris, and America.
New characters are introduced almost at every turn of the page and they are all interrelated and play small and large roles in separating the siblings as well as in their somewhat reunion. Like his previous works, The Kite Runner and A Thousand Splendid Suns, And the Mountains Echoed gives us glimpses of the hardships people face in Afghanistan.
With And the Mountains Echoed, Khaled Hosseini explores a different direction. Unlike his previous books, this one is full of unfinished endings and people are left hanging without closures. It makes his stories that much more real. However, all these unfinished endings and fates unknown can be a bit jarring for readers. Some of Hosseini's characters are not treated justly; he only lets us see glimpses into their lives before whisking us away to another time and another place.
Khaled Hosseini has a unique gift of creating tales with amazing characters and all of his works are a must read. However, after his previous two books, And the Mountains Echoed was a bit of a letdown for me.
Tanzin Sultana is sub-editor, The Daily Star.
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