Book Review: And the Mountains Echoed

Well, hello Book Club Friday, visitors. I haven't linked up in a looong while, mainly because I haven't felt like writing. But, never fear, I HAVE been reading. I picked up And the Mountains Echoed maybe a few months ago, and put a "starter" version of this post into my post list, but never finished it. So, here's the final entry for Book Club!

I was a big, big fan of The Kite Runner and and even bigger fan of A Thousand Splendid Suns by Khaled Hosseni. So, when And the Mountains Echoed came out I put myself on the wait list at the library immediately. I finally got tired of waiting and ended up buying it from Amazon.

{Source: Goodreads}

The plot of the story is split. The  novel begins with a father telling his kids a story. We meet a brother and a sister, and learn a little about their lives in a small, rural town of Afghanistan. What follows is an extraordinary story. The kids are split and sent follow drastically different life paths. Meanwhile, war comes to Afghanistan and the people and places they knew are changed. 

I have to say, I wasn't wowed. It was good. Hosseni is a great author and this novel had some good characters. But, at times, I felt like it moved slowly and I had a hard time staying with it at some points. I also got really confused, sometimes, about who was who, so then I had to go back and read to remember who everyone was.

That being said, if you enjoyed his other novels, you should read this one. It is powerful. As an American who has never been through the uncertainty that war brings it's easy to forget how simple our lives really are. This narrative is a strong reminder of how the world functions for many of it's inhabitants and how as humans we can be more aware of the impacts we make on others.

What books have you read lately?

To catch up on what I've been reading, visit me on Goodreads or my Pinterest Books board.

Also, here are the top 10 books that have stayed with me.