"And the Mountains Echoed"

Parting is a difficult process. Khaled Hosseini knows how to enmesh his readers into uncompromisingly sentimental stories. I learnt through him that not just ignorance, forgetfulness too can be bliss. He uses vivid memories to choke his readers with emotions who can’t forget him even after 4 years of reading, finding a vent in writing of a story whose poignancies lie in parting and eventual forgetfulness.   

"At last, she makes her choice. She turns around, drops her head, and walks toward a horizon she cannot see. After that, she does not look back anymore. She knows that if she does, she will weaken." Abdullah’s parting with his 3 year old sister, Pari who is sold by their father, is a trumpet call, which echoes just as much through the pages.  A small tin box is all he is left with, with his loud wails too shut inside it and buried under sand. The 10 year old Abdullah would move mountains to collect colorful feathers for Pari in that box which he treasures for her, in hope to meet her someday, again, and remind her of an unbreakable bond they shared. The author writes, "I now know that some people feel unhappiness the way others love: privately, intensely, and without recourse."

Finally, when the 63 years old Pari receives it after decades, it’s moving and unsettling that she cannot remember the value of the box and Abdullah can’t help her either owing to Alzheimer’s. The brother who was waiting for his sister for 50 odd years and treasuring the box for her since she was 3, meets her only when he can’t remember her.

What more can be unfair than this!

Amidst my unsuccessful attempt to capsule the essence of the novel and an unjustified review, lies a concoction of love, connection, sacrifice, bond, time and memory.
The third book by Hosseini which aptly won him a hat-trick is a must read for all!

(Part 2 soon for more spoilers, after I wrench my heart again with second reading)