Your Rating and Overall Opinion of And the Mountains Echoed

Discuss the June 2013 book of the month, "And the Mountains Echoed" by Khaled Hosseini.
Post Reply

How do you rate And the Mountains Echoed?

1 star - poor, recommend against reading it
0
No votes
2 stars - fair, okay
6
14%
3 stars - good, recommend it
13
31%
4 stars - excellent, amazing
23
55%
 
Total votes: 42

User avatar
Scott
Site Admin
Posts: 4068
Joined: 31 Jul 2006, 23:00
Favorite Author: Eckhart Aurelius Hughes
Currently Reading: The Unbound Soul
Bookshelf Size: 340
Reviewer Page: onlinebookclub.org/reviews/by-scott.html
Reading Device: B00JG8GOWU
Publishing Contest Votes: 960
fav_author_id: 248825

Your Rating and Overall Opinion of And the Mountains Echoed

Post by Scott »

How did you like reading And the Mountains Echoed by Khaled Hosseini? Would you recommend the book to others? Why or why not?
"That virtue we appreciate is as much ours as another's. We see so much only as we possess." - Henry David Thoreau

"Non ignara mali miseris succurrere disco." Virgil, The Aeneid
User avatar
shellyb
Posts: 53
Joined: 22 May 2013, 03:20
Favorite Author: Terry Pratchett
Favorite Book: To Kill a Mockingbird - Harper Lee
Currently Reading: The Midwife - Jennifer Worth
Bookshelf Size: 0
fav_author_id: 2791

Post by shellyb »

It does jump around a lot in time place and characters but this is a good thing as it makes for an active read. It took me a while to get into but then i was hooked.
“Books are a uniquely portable magic.”
― Stephen King, On Writing
doglvr
Posts: 66
Joined: 22 May 2010, 12:53
Bookshelf Size: 0

Post by doglvr »

Scott wrote:How did you like reading And the Mountains Echoed by Khaled Hosseini? Would you recommend the book to others? Why or why not?
I loved this book. Of course, I'll read anything by the author of The Kite Runner. I had ordered this book from our library It hadn't even been published. I was a little dismayed by a Boston Globe reviewer who found it rambling and too many characters. He must have read it at a bad time as I read it in 2 days and had no trouble with the characters. It followed the same families into old age.

I've recommended it to all my friends and expect to have it as one of our local book club reads.
User avatar
Fran
Posts: 28072
Joined: 10 Aug 2009, 12:46
Favorite Author: David Mitchell
Favorite Book: Anna Karenina
Currently Reading: Hide and Seek
Bookshelf Size: 1208
Reviewer Page: onlinebookclub.org/reviews/by-fran.html
Reading Device: B00I15SB16
fav_author_id: 3104

Post by Fran »

And the Mountains Echoed is a beautiful book and I savoured every word right to the end. Opening with a father telling his children a fable, of the type told by parents to millions of children down the centuries, but this fable has an uncanny echo in the events that befall the characters in the book.
A brother and sister from a remote Afghan village in the 1950s are travelling to Kabul with their father oblivious of the reason for the journey to the big city and unaware that the most significant event of their lives is about to take place. It is the echoes of that event down the years across continents and lives that gives the book its beguiling title. The closeness of the relationship between Abdullah and his little sister Pari (Fairy) is most poignantly defined when Abdullah trades his only pair of shoes for a peacock feather to give Pari and the sundering of their relationship is the single most dominating event of Abdullah's life and a defining event in all the other characters lives, even if many are unaware of it until the end.
I can undersatand why some readers have highlighted a difficulty with keeping track of the characters as the book moves rapidly in time and place, from rural Afghanistan to Kabul, to Greece, to France and US and there are a lot of characters to reconcile. I would just say don't get stressed about it just keep reading and the characters slowly resolve themselves and their relationships and interactions become apparent.
I loved this book and especially Hosseini's writing style ... "the long string of simple rituals that make up a lifetime" - quite beautifully put IMO.
As with The Kite Runner and A Thousand Splendid Suns, the themes are again guilt, love, loss, forgivness and reconciliation. All the characters are suberbly drawn with depth and sympathy & it is difficult not to feel an empathy for them even when their actions appear cruel and thoughtless.
I recommend it without hesitation to anyone who enjoys a good story and bewitching characters. It was an excellent choice for Book of the Month.
We fade away, but vivid in our eyes
A world is born again that never dies.
- My Home by Clive James
User avatar
Mdlifelongreader
Posts: 1
Joined: 18 Jun 2013, 12:50
Bookshelf Size: 0

Post by Mdlifelongreader »

I thought this was a wonderful book. It is different from the author's other books in that it is more of a collection of short stories than a novel. However, the stories are all woven together - part of the fun of reading the book is figuring out how some of the less-than-obvious connections between the stories are developed. I have read all of this author's books and loved them all.
User avatar
Sonal
Posts: 1
Joined: 20 Jun 2013, 07:40
Bookshelf Size: 0

Post by Sonal »

I had been eagerly waiting for the release of 'And the mountains echoed' after reading other two books by Khaled Hosseini, namely, 'A thousand splendid suns' and 'The kite runner' that have moved me deeply.But to my dismay, 'And the mountains echoed' did not stand up to my expectations.The book is basically about a brother who truly loves his younger sister but circumstances do them apart.The entire book gives the description of the lives of people who are related to the sibling, such as their stepmother, their uncle and a few others while the siblings have a small, though touching, role to play. Khaled is truly a gifted writer and can definitively write something better. I respect him for showing the true colours of the lives the people, the women , children and men of Afghanistan.
User avatar
tuttifrutti56
Posts: 5
Joined: 28 Jun 2013, 09:31
Bookshelf Size: 0

Post by tuttifrutti56 »

It is a excellent book.Very emotional.I love the part where pari reads the letter by her uncle nabi...
User avatar
ayotha1970
Posts: 37
Joined: 07 Mar 2013, 01:32
Currently Reading: The Lost Boy by Aher Arop Bol
Bookshelf Size: 0

Post by ayotha1970 »

Fran wrote:I recommend it without hesitation to anyone who enjoys a good story and bewitching characters. It was an excellent choice for Book of the Month.
@Fran, thank you so much for the summary, I needed it so much and looking forward to reading it :). After reading A Thousand Splendid Suns, I need to confess that I have fallen in love with the author and planning to read all his work :D.
User avatar
A24
Posts: 589
Joined: 02 Feb 2011, 15:18
Bookshelf Size: 0

Post by A24 »

After recently reading "A Thousand Splendid Suns" and loving it, I knew I wanted to read this new book by Khaled Hosseini. It definitely didn't disappoint. It did take me a little while to be absorbed as it does jump around with different characters and places, but once I did I couldn't put it down. I loved the writing style and the mini stories in one. When you start a chapter on a new character, you don't always know who it is at first. I loved trying to figure it out and connecting the related stories. It was tragic at times and so true how each major decision we make affects the rest of our lives and many times those around us as well. A beautiful book that I recommend to all. Each time I read stories of life in Afghanistan, I feel so blessed to be a woman in the United States. 5 stars.
“The Bible is worth all the other books which have ever been printed.”
~Patrick Henry
User avatar
Gannon
Previous Member of the Month
Posts: 14464
Joined: 17 May 2009, 01:48
Favorite Author: Colleen McCullough
Favorite Book: Pillars of the Earth
Currently Reading: Heaven's Net is Wide.
Bookshelf Size: 52
fav_author_id: 2863

Post by Gannon »

Great review Fran!! :D

Amazingly written this book. Very very similar to "Ghostwritten" and "Cloud Atlas" by David Mitchell, which can only be a good thing. I know it is a little hard to get to grips with at first but once the reader settles in to the style of writing it turns out to be a very rewarding novel. Heartbreakingly sad at moments, and joyously uplifting in others, I loved the ending. The return of the "feather" tin is a masterstroke and finishes the novel off brilliantly. :D
Imho the underlying theme of the book is love. Love in all it's forms and just how powerful love can be and what it can drive us to do for others.
Kind words can be short and easy to speak, but their echoes are truly endless. - Mother Teresa
User avatar
joreasonable
Posts: 55
Joined: 12 Feb 2013, 15:44
Bookshelf Size: 19
Reviewer Page: onlinebookclub.org/reviews/by-joreasonable.html
Latest Review: "Caught In A Web" by Jason Carter

Post by joreasonable »

unfortunately I am one of the few who didn´t finish it, I was very frustrated with all the jumping around and this is the main reason for not finishing. I haven´t read any of the authors previous books, (although I have seen the film of The Kite Runner) so I can´t compare to them. I guess we can´t all be pleased.
Latest Review: "Caught In A Web" by Jason Carter
lucyrebecca123
Posts: 17
Joined: 20 Sep 2013, 07:33
Bookshelf Size: 0

Post by lucyrebecca123 »

Having just finished, and loved, The Kite Runner and A Thousand Splendid Suns this book will definitely be going on my 'to read' list!
User avatar
Smarty79
Posts: 5
Joined: 28 Sep 2013, 16:28
Bookshelf Size: 0
Reviewer Page: onlinebookclub.org/reviews/by-smarty79.html

Post by Smarty79 »

I really enjoyed And the Mountains Echoed. His book Kite Runner is one of my all time favorites. I do wish that there was more character development. It was interesting how he enter twined all of the characters in the book. I always finish his book with my views and opinions changed.
Smitha Nayak
Posts: 65
Joined: 27 Sep 2013, 04:36
Bookshelf Size: 0

Post by Smitha Nayak »

Mountains” spans several generations and moves back and forth between Afghanistan and the West. (Mr. Hosseini says the title was inspired by William Blake’s poem “Nurse’s Song: Innocence,” which refers to hills echoing with the sound of children’s voices.) It grapples with many of the same themes that crisscross his early novels: the relationship between parents and children, and the ways the past can haunt the present. And it shares a similar penchant for mapping terrain midway between the boldly colored world of fable and the more shadowy, shaded world of realism.
User avatar
Imogen
Posts: 5
Joined: 05 Dec 2013, 02:45
Bookshelf Size: 0

Post by Imogen »

I absolutely loved this book. As I think the second post mentioned, it did jump around a bit between different characters/decades/cities and it took me a while to get into the book, but once I got about 40 pages in I read it so fast.
It was just so beautifully written. I haven't read any of Hosseni's other books, but I have them and I'll be reading them very soon!
Post Reply

Return to “"And the Mountains Echoed" by Khaled Hosseini”