And the mountains echoed by Khaled Hosseini – Bloomsbury

Ten-year-old Abdullah has a long day of travel ahead of him with his older sister Pari and his father. They live in Afghanistan, in a small village in the middle of the mountains. The place is called Shadbagh. They live with their step mother Parwana who is incapable of tenderness toward her stepchildren. The three of them are on their way to Kabul without knowing that the siblings will be separated. Neither the children know what this fateful journey will bring them.

1952. What was Kabul like? Abudallah is sharing his first impressions page 38. “Everywhere, he saw traffic lights, and teahouses, and restaurants, and glass fronted shops with bright multicolours signs. Cars rattling noisily down the crowded streets, hooting, darting narrowly among buses, pedestrians, and bicycles. Horse-drawn garis jingled up and down boulevards, their iron-rimmed wheels bouncing on the road.”A long time ago, it seems this place was nice and safe. Abdullah would do anything for his sister so when he meets Mr Wahdati for the first time there, he hasn’t got a clue what will happen next. Mr Wahdati is uncle Nabi’s boss. Nabi is a young man who is Parwana’s twin brother. Nabi is the family’s success story, perhaps the entire village. Kabul was Nabi’s escape. When he sometimes comes back to the village, absolutely everyone is admiring his situation in the capital city. What’s his job? What sort of decisions has he made? How did he deal with the situation, even many years later? Throughout this entire book, the reader is following them. The story lasts for a couple of years. The last chapter is in 2010.

This is the first book I’ve read by him. It was a gift from one of my sixth former student back in the UK. He’s probably most well known for writing The Kite Runner so after reading that first one, I feel discovering more of his publications. I’ve picked it up because I wanted to know more about Afghanistan and also because I knew how much my previous student loved it, recommending me now to get A thousand Splendid Suns. In every chapter, we change perspectives and I have to say I felt at times a bit lost, not fully understanding the main storyline but as you go any further in the story, you start assembling the different pieces of the puzzle all together and it did make more sense. In that sense, it is a bit difficult to recap the story.

The story takes place in many different places and that was one of the aspect I really enjoyed the most. It starts in Afghanistan, then there is a long part in France. The writer is using many cultural references to make it sound more authentic and credible. There are words in French and the writer decided not to translate them. I also loved the musical references to Jane Birkin, Brigitte Bardot, Jacques Brel. There is also a reference to the Canadian songwriter Leonard Cohen. We also travel to the Unites States of America, Greece and Africa.

The writing is beautiful. I’ve copied many quotes from him. He is producing images that flow like poetry.

So thanks for the book Gurdeep. It took me quite a while to read this 466 pages but it was absolutely worth it! Un grand MERCI.