Khaled Hosseini was born in Kabul, Afghanistan, and moved to the United States in 1980. He is the author of the New York Times bestsellers The Kite Runner, A Thousand Splendid Suns, and And the Mountains Echoed. He is A U.S. Goodwill Envoy to the United Nations Refugee Agency, and the founder of The Khaled Hosseini Foundation, a nonprofit that provides humanitarian assistance to the people of Afghanistan.
"[Hosseini's] most assured and emotionally gripping story yet . . . Hosseini's narrative gifts have deepened over the years. . . . [And the Mountains Echoed] 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... [W]e finish this novel with an intimate understanding of who his characters are and how they've defined themselves over the years through the choices they have made between duty and freedom, familial responsibilities and independence, loyalty to home and exile abroad... a deeply affecting choral work... a testament both to his intimate knowledge of their inner lives, and to his power as an old-fashioned storyteller. "--Michiko Kakutani, The New York Times
"The Kite Runner author's latest is a moving saga about
sacrifice, betrayal, and the power of family. . . . More expansive
than The Kite Runner and A Thousand Splendid Suns,
the novel spans three generations and includes overlapping tales of
expatriates and aid workers, parents and children, doctors and drug
lords. Hosseini shows how easy it is for people to brutalize or
abandon those they should protect. But his ultimate achievement is
demonstrating the power and persistence of family."--People
(4 stars) "[Hosseini's] beautifully written, masterfully crafted
new book, And the Mountains Echoed, spans nearly 60 years of
Afghan history as it investigates the consequences of a desperate
act that scars two young lives and resonates through many others. .
. . And the Mountains Echoed is painfully sad but also
radiant with love: the enduring bond of a brother and sister; the
irritable but bedrock connection of cousins; the quiet intimacy of
master and servant who become friends; the commitment of a doctor
and nurse to war's victims. To underscore love's centrality and
contingency, Hosseini closes with an image drawn from a dream: a
snapshot of bygone happiness all the more precious in retrospect
because we know how fragile it is."--Los Angles Times
"And the Mountains Echoed opens like a thunderclap. . . .
[Hosseini] asks good, hard questions about the limits of love. . .
. Love, Hosseini seems to say, is the great leveler, cutting
through language, class, and identity. No one in this gripping
novel is immune to its impact."--O, the Oprah Magazine "With
his third and most ambitious novel yet, Hosseini makes it clear
that he's not ready to rest on his Big Name. . . . While it hits
all the Hosseini sweet spots--nostalgia, devastating details,
triumph over the odds--And the Mountains Echoed covers more
ground, both geographically and emotionally, than his previous
works. It's not until Hosseini makes the novel small again, for the
poignant conclusion, that you fully appreciate what he's
accomplished."--Entertainment Weekly (A) "I'm not an easy
touch when it comes to novels, but Hosseini's new book, And the
Mountains Echoed, had tears dropping from my eyes by Page 45. .
. . It's hard to do justice to a novel this rich in a short review.
There are a dozen things I still want to say -- about the rhyming
pairs of characters, the echoing situations, the varied takes on
honesty, loneliness, beauty and poverty, the transformation of
emotions into physical ailments. Instead, I'll just add this: Send
Hosseini up the bestseller list again."--Washington Post
"The genius of Khaled Hosseini's novels--including his best-selling
The Kite Runner and A Thousand Splendid Suns, as well
as his latest, the masterly And the Mountains Echoed--is
that they pull off the neat trick of embodying and transcending the
essence of a place. . . . This is an exquisite novel, a must-read
for anyone with an interest in what it means to be alive, anywhere
and everywhere."--USA Today "There is an assured,
charismatic new maturity to Hosseini's voice. When he hits his
stride, the results are electrifying."--San Francico
Chronicle "Hosseini delves into the joys, sorrows, and
betrayals that alternately bind and fracture families. Once again,
Hosseini's lovingly rendered Afghanistan takes center stage, but in
this book he extends his examination to encompass how the Afghan
identity affects his characters' decisions and lives in unfamiliar
environments."--Boston Globe "Compulsively readable, in
large part because [Hosseini] probes his characters' psyches in a
nuanced and poetic manner . . . And the Mountains Echoed
attains a greater level of complexity than its two predecessors . .
. and signals the ongoing maturation of a gifted
storyteller."--The Miami Herald "Hosseini . . . is
back with his beautiful, often harrowing third novel, And the
Mountains Echoed."--Chicago Tribune "My main goal in
reading Khaled Hosseini's new book, And the Mountains
Echoed, was to avoid crying. I failed within the first 20
pages. And by the last page, I was bawling. So, yes, much like
Hosseini's earlier works, The Kite Runner and A Thousand
Splendid Suns, his latest book is bathed in sadness and
despair, with the requisite occasional ray of hope. Much like those
other two books, And the Mountains Echoed is powerful and
haunting. And much like the country it describes, it is not easy to
forget. . . . You won't be able to put it down. To those readers
who manage to get through it without shedding a tear, well, I tip
my hat."--Associated Press "Wrought with mastery, And the
Mountains Echoed is not just a well spun tale, but an
accomplishment of the most elusive of literary challenges--the
humanization of a war ravaged population in the eyes of the very
people complicit in their ruin."--Daily Beast
"Haunting."--Houston Chronicle "The story that Khaled
Hosseini tells in And the Mountains Echoed is one of loss
and love--in that order. At its heart, this tale spells out what
happens when a brother and sister are torn apart as children--a
father's choice to do what he hopes is the right thing. . . .
Hosseini masterfully moves the story between Afghanistan and Paris,
with side trips to the United States and Greece. . . . It's only
toward the end of this beautiful tale of family that Hosseini
reveals more about Abdullah, still devoted to his long-gone sister
and still, somehow, hoping they will be reunited. ' "She was
perfect," he would say.' The same might be said of this novel. It's
nearly perfect just as it is."--St. Louis Post Dispatch
"Transports you whole into the otherworldly realms Hosseini builds
in Kabul, Paris, San Francisco, and the Greek islands. . . .
There's something primary and beautiful about the simple desire to
get lost in a story, and Hosseini is an expert manufacturer of that
experience."--Harper's Bazaar "Sprawling family
saga."--Vanity Fair "Ambitiously expansive."--Vogue
"Like a sculptor working in a soft medium, [Hosseini] gently molds
and shapes individual pieces that ultimately fit together in a
major work. . . . Family matters in ways small and large in this
novel. Whether or not the connections are visible, they exist
nevertheless. Hosseini seems to be telling us that the way we care
is who we are and, ultimately, the face we show to life."--New
York Daily News "Readers' tears may fall by first chapter's end
. . . Introspective and perfectly paced, Hosseini's microcosmic
plot spares no expense with sensory details. Each character . . .
captivates. Hosseini skillfully weaves the tapestry with universal
elements: human fallibility, innate goodness, perseverance,
forgiveness, sexuality, jealousy, companionship, and joy. Yet his
words are never sugarcoated: The brutality of life is on display,
and people are shown just as they are, for better or worse. Poverty
and gender roles leave scars, while shifting points of view reveal
Hosseini's prism of truth. The heartbreaks are not intended for
shock value, but they do linger. And the Mountains Echoed
resonates to the core."--Austin Chronicle "Like [Hosseini's]
previous books, the new novel is a complex mosaic, a portrait of
the Afghan diaspora as it is folded into the West and of those left
behind. . . . The book is elevated by a strong sense of parable and
some finely drawn characters and is inventively constructed as it
leaps from voice to voice."--Esquire "Early reviews are in
and they've confirmed what we've known all along: Khaled Hosseini's
latest novel, And the Mountains Echoed, is a hit. It's also
a surprisingly nuanced, morally complex, exquisitely told
tear-jerker."--Christian Science Monitor "Hosseini returns
with an instantly relatable novel that follows generations of a
troubled family across the Middle East."--Marie Claire "The
beautiful writing, full of universal truths of loss and identity,
makes each section a jewel . . . Hosseini's eye for detail and
emotional geography makes this a haunting read."--Publishers
Weekly "Captivating and affecting . . . A masterful and
compassionate storyteller, Hosseini traces the traumas and scarring
of tyranny, war, crime, lies, and illness in the intricately
interconnected, heartbreaking, and transcendent lives of his
vibrantly realized characters to create a grand and encompassing
tree of life."--Booklist (starred review) "Hosseini weaves a
gorgeous tapestry of disparate characters joined by threads of
blood and fate. . . . In this uplifting and deeply satisfying book,
Hosseini displays an optimism not so obvious in his previous works.
Readers will be clamoring for it."--Library Journal (starred
review) "In And the Mountains Echoed, Khaled Hosseini
presents a multitude of windows into the souls affected by these
events. The novel's rich kaleidoscope of images coalesces around
one theme: the powerful and often excruciating legacy of family
ties within the maelstrom of history."--Shelf Awareness
"Fiction Top Pick . . . Engrossing . . . Ultimately, And the
Mountains Echoed is about the human endeavor to transcend
difference."--Bookpage And the Mountains Echoed, is a hit.
It's also a surprisingly nuanced, morally complex, exquisitely told
tear-jerker."--Christian Science Monitor "The beautiful
writing, full of universal truths of loss and identity, makes each
section a jewel . . . Hosseini's eye for detail and emotional
geography makes this a haunting read."--Publishers Weekly
"Captivating and affecting . . . A masterful and compassionate
storyteller, Hosseini traces the traumas and scarring of tyranny,
war, crime, lies, and illness in the intricately interconnected,
heartbreaking, and transcendent lives of his vibrantly realized
characters to create a grand and encompassing tree of
life."--Booklist (starred review) "Hosseini weaves a
gorgeous tapestry of disparate characters joined by threads of
blood and fate. . . . In this uplifting and deeply satisfying book,
Hosseini displays an optimism not so obvious in his previous works.
Readers will be clamoring for it."--Library Journal (starred
review) "In And the Mountains Echoed, Khaled Hosseini
presents a multitude of windows into the souls affected by these
events. The novel's rich kaleidoscope of images coalesces around
one theme: the powerful and often excruciating legacy of family
ties within the maelstrom of history."--Shelf Awareness
"Fiction Top Pick . . . Engrossing . . . Ultimately, And the
Mountains Echoed is about the human endeavor to transcend
difference."--Bookpage
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