Hosseini, Khaled "And the Mountains Echoed"

Hosseini, Khaled "And the Mountains Echoed" - 2013

So far, I have read three books by Khaled Hosseini, the three books he has written so far. I liked "The Kite Runner", I loved "A Thousand Splendid Suns" and I thought that this one was one of the best books I have read in a long time (and I read a lot). One proof how much I was looking forward to this is that I even read it before it was out in paperback. I prefer those editions, they are easier to hold and to carry around.

Khaled Hosseini is a wonderful author. Such beautiful penmanship, such a gift for telling a story of his war-torn home country. He is an author where you don't think another great book like this will come along anytime soon. His book leaves you with a feeling that it can't be over yet, why are there only 400 pages?

"So, then. You want a story and I will tell you one..." This is how the story begins. Abdullah's and Pari's father Saboor loves telling stories and the children love listening to him. What they don't know, his stories are often parables that shine into their own lives, good or bad. The novel tells us about town and village life in Afghanistan but also about the lives of Afghan expatriates in France and the United States of America as well as that of foreigners living in Afghanistan. He mentions them all. We meet rich people and poor people, good and bad ones. We learn about siblings, sibling rivalry and sibling love. About friendship, marriage, sickness and health, this is a novel about everything. The story spans over several generations and more than half a century, starting in the 40s in Afghanistan and ending at the beginning of this century in California. I don't want to give away too much and I would have to do that if I delved deeper into the story. I just want to add that this books raises so many questions about the why and how we live, what kind of decisions people make and what the implications are on the lives of so many. I would say it is quite philosophical in that respect but also tells a gripping story you don't want to put away until you're finished.

What I specifically loved about this book, it starts immediately, no long introduction to get used to the characters, no description of any kind what was before (that comes later), I love how he starts with a splash. You don't have to read about fifty pages to know whether you will like this book. You will like it from the beginning.

If you only read one new book this year, "And the Mountains Echoed" should be it!

The only disappointment, now that I read his newest book so fast, it will take even longer to wait for the next one.

See more comments on my ThrowbackThursday post in 2025.

From the back cover:

"So, then. You want a story and I will tell you one...
 
Afghanistan, 1952. Abdullah and his sister Pari live with their father and stepmother in the small village of Shadbagh. Their father, Saboor, is constantly in search of work and they struggle together through poverty and brutal winters. To Abdullah, Pari, as beautiful and sweet-natured as the fairy for which she was named, is everything. More like a parent than a brother, Abdullah will do anything for her, even trading his only pair of shoes for a feather for her treasured collection. Each night they sleep together in their cot, their skulls touching, their limbs tangled.
 
One day the siblings journey across the desert to Kabul with their father. Pari and Abdullah have no sense of the fate that awaits them there, for the event which unfolds will tear their lives apart; sometimes a finger must be cut to save the hand.
 
Crossing generations and continents, moving from Kabul, to Paris, to San Francisco, to the Greek island of Tinos, with profound wisdom, depth, insight and compassion, Khaled Hosseini writes about the bonds that define us and shape our lives, the ways that we help our loved ones in need, how the choices we make resonate through history, and how we are often surprised by the people closest to us."

Seierstad, Åsne "The Bookseller of Kabul"

Seierstad, Åsne "The Bookseller of Kabul" (Norwegian: Bokhandleren i Kabul) - 2003

We have read a lot of books about Afghanistan in the book club, almost any that was suggested would be picked. Why we didn't choose this one, I really don' remember. I can only say, it certainly wasn't the best. That was "The Sewing Circles of Herat" by Christina Lamb, well researched and with a fine understanding of the other culture.

This is something I was missing in this book. Though the author tries to understand them, she doesn't really get into their minds, she lacks the feeling of the Eastern culture because she is a Westerner. It is easy to go to a place like this and say, I am democratic because we have certain democratic rules in our country. No, being democratic also has to be to understand that in other countries these rules do not work the same way.

I don't want to say that this allows people to neglect human rights but there is usually only a fine line between understanding the others and condemning them. I don't think the author got that.

From the back cover:

"In spring 2002, following the fall of the Taliban, Asne Seierstad spent four months living with a bookseller and his family in Kabul.

For more than twenty years Sultan Khan defied the authorities - be they communist or Taliban - to supply books to the people of Kabul. He was arrested, interrogated and imprisoned by the communists, and watched illiterate Taliban soldiers burn piles of his books in the street. He even resorted to hiding most of his stock - almost ten thousand books - in attics all over Kabul.

But while Khan is passionate in his love of books and his hatred of censorship, he also has strict views on family life and the role of women. As an outsider, Asne Seierstad found herself in a unique position, able to move freely between the private, restricted sphere of the women - including Khan's two wives - and the freer, more public lives of the men.

It is an experience that Seierstad finds both fascinating and frustrating. As she steps back from the page and allows the Khans to speak for themselves, we learn of proposals and marriages, hope and fear, crime and punishment. The result is a genuinely gripping and moving portrait of a family, and a clear-eyed assessment of a country struggling to free itself from history."

Hosseini, Khaled "A Thousand Splendid Suns"

Hosseini, Khaled "A Thousand Splendid Suns" - 2007

I'm not sure whether I would have picked up this book if it hadn't been a book club read. We read "The Kite Runner" in October 2007, the year, this book was published. We had read quite a few Afghanistan books previously and I was probably just expecting something else.

Anyway, I'm glad this novel was chosen for our reading list this year. Because I really enjoyed the book. And it is always fantastic getting together with so many lovely girls discussing the most interesting subjects.

This is only one of many Afghanistan books this group has read over the years. Such an important subject. We had a lot of positive comments to this novel. Good story, gripping, difficult to put down, drew you into this subject, spirit of the human heart, how people can find pleasure and joy. Someone said the book is haunting, couldn't agree more. But not just in a negative way. It also gives you hope, hope that people still go on after everything they go through and still want to work toward a better life for everyone.

This book touches a lot of subjects, of which we were only able to discusss a few, I think one could make this an all-week feature:
·    Abuse to women and children. If you give someone power, they will use it. If abuse is not punished, people will abuse others.
·    Importance of education, not just for women and children/girls, also for men
·    Child marriages
·    Tribes
·    Mother-daughter-relationship, sisterhood, amazing how a man can write this
·    Religion

Certainly a worthwhile read, even if you didn't enjoy Kaleid Hosseini's first book.

We discussed this in our international book club in June 2011.

See more comments on my ThrowbackThursday post in 2024.

From the back cover:

"A Thousand Splendid Suns is a 2007 novel by Afghan-American author Khaled Hosseini. It is his second, following his bestselling 2003 debut, The Kite Runner. The book, which spans a period of over 40 years, from the 1960s to 2003, focuses on the tumultuous lives and relationship of Mariam and Laila, two Afghan women. Mariam, an illegitimate child, suffers from the stigma surrounding her birth and the abuse she faces throughout her marriage. Laila, born a generation later, is comparatively privileged during her youth until their lives intersect and she is also forced to accept a marriage proposal from Rasheed, Mariam's husband."

His latest book is the best one: "And the Mountains Echoed".

Lamb, Christina "The Sewing Circles of Herat"

Lamb, Christina "The Sewing Circles of Herat: A Personal Voyage Through Afghanistan" - 2002 

I have read quite a few books about Afghanistan over the years since there seem to be a lot available right now. This was by far the best one of them. (All the others were fiction.)

Christina Lamb is a journalist who knows her job. She had been in Afghanistan before 9/11 and then went back straight after when almost no western correspondent was able to get there. She met a lot of people from all sides - politicians, Taliban, normal people, especially women. And she gives a great insight into this tormented country. You almost feel like you're there with her.

Great book about this topic.

From the back cover:

"Ten years ago, Christina Lamb reported on the war the Afghan people were fighting against the Soviet Union. Now, back in Afghanistan, she has written an extraordinary memoir of her love affair with the country and its people.

Long haunted by her experiences in Afghanistan, Lamb returned there after last year's attack on the World Trade Centre to find out what had become of the people and places that had marked her life as a young graduate.This time seeing the land through the eyes of a mother and experienced foreign correspondent, Lamb's journey brings her in touch with the people no one else is writing about: the abandoned victims of almost a quarter century of war.

‘Of all books about Afghanistan, Christina Lamb’s is the most revealing and rewarding…a personal, perceptive and moving account of bravery in the face of staggering difficulties.’ Anthony Sattin, Sunday Times

'As an account of how Afghanistan got into its present state, and of the making of the grotesque regime of the Taliban, this book could not possibly be bettered. Brilliant.’ Matthew Leeming, Spectator

'Lamb’s book combines a love of Afghanistan with a fearless search for the human stories behind the past twenty-three years of war…Her book is not only a necessary education for the Western reader in the political warring that generated the torture, murder and poverty, but also a stirring lament for the country of ruins that was once better known for its poetry and mosques.’ James Hopkin, The Times"

We discussed this in our international book club in May 2005.

See more comments on my ThrowbackThursday post in 2024.

I have also read "The Africa House: The True Story of an English Gentleman and His African Dream", just as interesting.

Shakib, Siba "Samira and Samir"

Shakib, Siba "Samira and Samir: The Heartrending Story of Love and Oppression in Afghanistan" (German: Samira und Samir) - 2004

After reading "Afghanistan, Where God Only Comes To Weep" (Nach Afghanistan kommt Gott nur noch zum Weinen), I wanted to read more of this author.

I am always amazed about the challenges women go through in order to live their lives as a man. But then I grew up in a culture where the difference isn't that large any more, I have the same human rights as men etc.

The author was born in Iran but has lived in the Western world, mainly in Germany. Her books are written in German and this is a translation (I read the original so cannot vouch for the English version).

Anyway, the book is very interesting. Read it.

See more comments on my ThrowbackThursday post in 2023.

From the back cover:

"When the young Afghanistanian girl Samira is born, her father, a commander fighting in the mountainous regions of Afghanistan, decides to raise her as a boy called Samir. The fact that Samir is really a girl is soon forgotton as Samir learns to fight, ride and shoot as well as any boy and when her father is killed she becomes the head of the family. As an adult, she falls in love with the male friend of her youth and is forced to reveal her true identity. In order to marry Bashir, she must relinquish the freedom she is afforded as a man. Samira follows her heart but hates wearing the veil. Eventually, the torment becomes too great and she decides that there must be a third way to live, as a confident woman not confined by the rules of her culture. This is her story."

German books by Siba Shakib.

Shakib, Siba "Afghanistan, Where God Only Comes to Weep"

Shakib, Siba "Afghanistan, Where God Only Comes to Weep" (German: Nach Afghanistan kommt Gott nur noch zum Weinen) - 2002

I wasn't sure where to place this book, the author herself calls it faction since some of the events happened to Shirin-Gol herself, others to other Afghan women.

In any case, it's a great account of the struggles and problems women have to go through, not only in Afghanistan but anywhere in the poorer part of the world where war and/or disaster strucks. It's always the women who suffer most, the women who have to look after their families, the old and the young, when the men go and fight for their country, religion, freedom, whatever.

I thought this book was great, it gave a good insight into the lives of people in that part of the world where you usually just get political or military news.

We discussed this in our international book club in April 2006 and in our German book club in April 2010.

See more comments on my ThrowbackThursday post in 2023.

From the back cover:

"One woman's harrowing story about life under the Taliban regime in Afghanistan.

Shirin-Gol was just a young girl when her village was levelled by the Russians in 1979. When the men in her family joined the resistance, she fled with the other women and children to Kabul, and so began a life of day-to-day struggle in her war-torn country.

A life that included a Pakistani refugee camp, a forced marriage to pay off her brother's gambling debts, selling her body and begging for money to feed her growing family, an attempted suicide and an unsuccessful attempt to leave Afghanistan for Iran after the Taliban seized control of her country.

This is the story of the fate of many women in Afghanistan. But it is also a story of a courageous and proud woman who refused to be banished to a life behind the walls of her house, who wanted an education for her children so that they could have a chance to live their lives without fear and poverty."

By the same author: "Samira and Samir: The Heartrending Story of Love and Oppression in Afghanistan" (Samira und Samir)

German books by Siba Shakib.

Hosseini, Khaled "The Kite Runner"

Hosseini, Khaled "The Kite Runner" - 2003

This was not my first book about Afghanistan, I have read quite a few. But apart from "The Sewing Circles of Herat" which I still consider the best, this has been one of the more interesting ones. Even though it is not necessarily just about Afghanistan - or maybe just because of that - and it doesn't go on all the time about the Afghanistan during and after the Taliban, I thought this was very informative.

We discussed this in our international book club in October 2007.

Book Description:

"The unforgettable, heartbreaking story of the unlikely friendship between a wealthy boy and the son of his father's servant, The Kite Runner is a beautifully crafted novel set in a country that is in the process of being destroyed. It is about the power of reading, the price of betrayal, and the possibility of redemption; and an exploration of the power of fathers over sons - their love, their sacrifices, their lies.
A sweeping story of family, love, and friendship told against the devastating backdrop of the history of Afghanistan over the last thirty years, The Kite Runner is an unusual and powerful novel that has become a beloved, one-of-a-kind classic."

I did read other books later on that I liked even more, e.g.
Shakib, Siba "Nach Afghanistan kommt Gott nur noch zum Weinen" (Afghanistan, Where God Only Comes to Weep) - 2002
- "Samira und Samir" (Samira and Samir) - 2004

I also really really liked his next book "A Thousand Splendid Suns" - 2007
His latest book is the best one: "And the Mountains Echoed"- 2013

See more comments on my ThrowbackThursday post in 2022.