And the Mountains Echoed

By: Khaled Hosseini

Narrated by: Khaled Hosseini, Navid Negahban, Shohreh Aghdashloo

Length: 14 hrs and 1 min

Publisher's summary

On May 21, 2013, the new novel from Khaled Hosseini: an unforgettable story about finding a lost piece of yourself in someone else.

Khaled Hosseini, the number-one New York Times best-selling author of The Kite Runner and A Thousand Splendid Suns, has written a new novel about how we love, how we take care of one another, and how the choices we make resonate through generations. In this tale revolving around not just parents and children but brothers and sisters, cousins and caretakers, Hosseini explores the many ways in which families nurture, wound, betray, honor, and sacrifice for one another; and how often we are surprised by the actions of those closest to us, at the times that matter most. Following its characters and the ramifications of their lives and choices and loves around the globe—from Kabul to Paris to San Francisco to the Greek island of Tinos—the story expands gradually outward, becoming more emotionally complex and powerful with each passing minute.

©2013 Khaled Hosseini (P)2013 Penguin Audio

a very heartfelt story of love lost then found

a very heartwarming story of love lost between family particularly siblings only to be found years later...

Beautiful

The realness of the characters and the struggles of their relationships is convincingly authentic.
As a second generation immigrant I have a deep understanding of not knowing exactly where you’re from and Would recommend to everyone.

Exceptional

I could not turn it off
What a talented author this is
Great listen and performance

Storytelling At Its Finest

And the Mountains Echoed grabbed me from the start, and never let me go. Khaled's style of writing is superb; filled with profound insight, wisdom, and grace. Even as I am enjoying the tales, I can't help but also think of the man writing them, and how keenly observant he must be to the world around him. Fantastic book, and impressive author. I cannot recommend this enough! It's a bedtime story for grown-ups in the most delightful way!!!

A Failed Experiment

I read this because I really enjoyed The Kite Runner and A Thousand Splendid Suns, also by Mr. Hosseini.

One of the things I most enjoy about his books is stepping into Afghani culture, through the description of surroundings, ways of life, language, or characters' mindsets. That was certainly true here. He is a master at "the big twist" -- a shift in the story towards the end of the book that I wasn't expecting, and found to be quite moving. He is also great at doing "little twists", which keep you guessing about how well you know each character and his or her relationship to the other characters, and make the story very entertaining.

I struggled with the structure of this book. The narrative jumps among several characters, places, and points in time with abandon. I typically do not mind a non-linear narrative, but in this case I found it hard to follow, especially because the revolving narrators did not tie directly to characters.

When I listened to The Kite Runner (narrated by Mr. Hosseini), I was rapt by his pronunciation of the Farsi words, names of people and places in Afghanistan, etc.; it certainly added a level of enjoyment to my experience that is part of why I love audiobooks in the first place. In And the Mountains Echoed, however, so much concentration was at times required to follow the accented English of Mr. Negahban and Ms. Aghdashloo that the effect was lost.

The decision to layer multiple narrators on top of multiple narratives strikes me as a failed experiment. I would have enjoyed this more if Hosseini had narrated the whole thing himself.

And The Mountains Echoed

What did you like best about And the Mountains Echoed? What did you like least?

Narration is horrible. Cannot understand the accent of the narrators. Thus audiobook is useless. Useless.

What was your reaction to the ending? (No spoilers please!)

Bad

Would you be willing to try another one of the narrators’s performances?

No

If this book were a movie would you go see it?

No

Any additional comments?

No

A place and people you can hear and see vividly

Outstanding story of people, place (Kabul, Afghanistan). and the interaction of individuals, especially among family members; living in the turbulent environment over decades of social and political wars and change. The narration is exquisite. The story progresses like a well developed and directed film that showcases a stellar cast. I thought that Hosseini could not top himself after the Kite Runner and A thousand Splendid Suns. How wrong I was! Hosseini just gets better and better. I can hardly wait to read his next book.

Afghanistan's history through one family's history

AND THE MOUNTAINS ECHOED by Khaled Hosseini---This is a series of stories that connect to tell a family's 50 year history starting in 1952 in Afghanistan, with a poor man who has decided that he must take his brother's offer to sell his daughter to the brother's wealthy employer who has no children. As the daughter and her older brother were extremely close, this affects them the most. Though the daughter, at four years old, soon settles into her new family and her past is only a shadow in her mind until many years later. The brother was basically a parent to his little sister because their mother had died, so he was devastated.

Chapters are told in the voice of various participants during different times in their lives. As the reader, we are drawn into the sorrows and affects of life and history of the people and of Afghanistan during this time period. Hosseini does a wonderful job of evoking the many feelings of everyone as they respond to life and their connections to one another and their places in the family's history, eventually returning brother and sister together as older and different people.

I listened to the Audible version which was read by the author and two other Afghanis. This made it more authentic, but was sometimes a bit more difficult to understand because of the accents. But, eventually I caught onto the rhythm of the speech patterns and enjoyed it very much.

Again Hosseini delivers haunting characters

Afghanistan--the last place I would expect to provide the most enduring, complex plots and characters in recent fiction. Nevertheless, Hosseini draws the reader immediately into this land of contrasts and traditions, and it is easy to want the novel to go on for many hours more. When one puts down a Hosseini novel, its characters live on inside one's mind for many days. I can't help but wonder if the author is producing the subject matter for many literature students to come.

Surprisingly Disappointing

Is there anything you would change about this book?

The book begins with a compelling, provocative story, but then takes many twists and turns and brings the reader new stories that are also interesting, but not as interesting as the initial story. I found myself becoming frustrated with the other stories, just wanting to get back to Pari and Abdullah, or becoming annoyed that the other stories weren't given more attention; the book has a number of wonderful stories that could each have made fantastic full-length books, but compiled together felt that the different story lines were shortchanged, and as a reader I felt lost.

I also really did not care for Navid Negahban as a narrator; his voice was somnorific and hard to understand. He was exhausting to listen to. I wound up purchasing the book just so I could read his sections. Khaled Hosseini was a great narrator, and I wish he had done more.

If you’ve listened to books by Khaled Hosseini before, how does this one compare?

I have loved Khaled Hosseini's other books, so I had such high hopes for this one. It is therefore a shock that this one is just not as good.