And the mountains Echoed

My last “Extra book” for a long time as I begin meeting with the RAs of 2017-18 starting tomorrow.  I’m looking forward to the long list of new books that I will review in the coming months.  This is a fun time of the year.  My last Facebook friends favorite books was a good one, And the mountains echoed, by Khaled Hosseini.  Yes, the same author who wrote Kite Runner and A thousand splendid suns.  Hosseini is a wonderful storyteller.  He leaves the reader wanting for more.  Once again, his stories tear at your heart strings.  He is able to ‘move the reader’ from one emotion to the next.  Brilliant writing!  His new technique is using nine chapters and having nine different characters each tell a bit of the story, from their perspective, culminating in an ending that brings it all to an end.  Chapter one introduces a father who has to give away one of his children, a son (Abdullah) or the younger sister (Pari) to the evil spirit in a dream sequence, which is a premonition of what is to follow… fast forward to 1952 when Pari’s father (Saboor) takes the two siblings on a trip to Kabul from their impoverished surroundings in the rural village area.  Pari is left behind, sold to her uncle Nabi’s employers, a wealthy couple (the Wahditis) whom he runs their household.  The rest of the chapters have tangential characters each having some connection to Abdullah and Pari which leads to the last chapter where the brother and sister reconnect across the globe after 60+ years apart.  Can sibling connections remain intact forever?   It is a story of missed opportunities, lost love, and heartbreak.  Worth every minute, though I was confused as the years went forward and back through the voices of multiple characters.  After I figured things out, easier to understand the author’s intent.