Book Review Of 'And the Mountains Echoed'

Book: And the Mountains Echoed

Author: Khaled Hosseini

Pages: 466

BLURB:

Ten-year-old Abdullah would do anything for his younger sister. In life of poverty and struggle, with no mother to care for them, Pari is the only person who brings Abdullah happiness. For her, he will trade his only pair of shoes to give her a feather for her treasured collection. When their father sets off with Pari across the desert to Kabul in search of work, Abdullah is determined not to be separated form her. neither brother nor sister knows what this fateful journey will bring them.

And the Mountains Echoed is a deeply moving epic heartache, hope and, above all, the unbreakable bonds of love.

MY TAKE ON THE BOOK:

I had this book with me since a long time, but this lockdown period made me take hold of this book.

And I don’t know how and why I escaped myself from reading this book for so long that was just lying on my table. I know everyone loves Khaled Hosseini’s work and this beautiful story ‘And the Mountains Echoed’ is just an amazing work of his.

Looking at the cover, my first impression was that there would be mountains and maybe, the story was portrayed in a place where beautiful landscapes are shown, rivers are flowing and you know, everything going smoothly and all.

But when you go deep into the story, it’s not what you think. The story is portrayed at Kabul, a land covered with deserts. And nothing goes smoothly, the attacks on Afghanistan, the bullets, the untimely death and tragedies are evident in the book.

There was a letter, rather I would say a long letter, which was given to Mr. Markos by Nabi who was the chauffer and care taker of Mr. Suleiman Wahdati. The letter which was mentioned was only to be read after the death of Nabi. The letter was enclosed with the will of the property that was in the name of ‘Pari’.

Nabi was Abdullah and Pari’s uncle. While delivering Pari, they have lost their mother. Nabi always tried to be attentive to them, especially to Abdullah, who most seemed to need it. Once a month, Mr. Wahdati generously let him borrow his car, and he would drive down to Shadbagh, his native village to visit Parwana and her husband Saboor. He offer to take Abdullah and Pari rides in the car, to make them feel that they are not alone.

Later on, Pari and Abdullah who shared unbreakable bond were separated when Pari was left with Nila to spend the rest of her life on the insistence of Nabi who worked at their place.  

Nila was a poet. Her poems defied tradition. They followed no preset meter or rhyming pattern. Nor did they deal with the usual things, trees, and spring flowers and bulbul birds. Nila wrote about love, and by love its not about Sufi yearnings of Rumi but instead physical love. 

Mr. Wahdati (Nila’s husband) suffers from stroke and become bed ridden. It was Nabi who took care of him. After Mr. Wahdati’s bed ridden condition, Nila took Pari along with her and moved to France leaving everything behind.

Nabi mentioned everything in the letter which made Markos think really hard. Markos was a plastic surgeon who came to Kabul to serve the mankind and lived with Nabi in his house along with some other people who were with him to help in uplifting the situations of Kabul at that time. 

Thalia(who began living with Markos and his mother in a small island of Tinos), a girl who has disfigured face from the childhood due to the attack of a dog, hides her disfigured face with a veil for the sake of her extremely beautiful mother. Who was later abandoned by her mother for her disfigurement. And later on, she refuses to correct the disfigurement when even Markos urges for it because she think this is her identity.

 Later on, the story is concluded with a bitter sweet ending where Abdullah’s daughter Pari, brings a guest to her home for her father who was none other than his own sister Pari. They were separated during their childhood which was a tragic one.

And before Abdullah was diagnosed with Alzheimers, he gives his sister the box he kept safe, the box with the collected feathers in myriads of colours, especially the peacock feather with that big eye and the write up along with them.

I really enjoyed reading this book and after reading this book, I am sure I am never going to remove this from the list of my favourite ones.

P.S.- Suggesting everyone to read this particular book. It is truly an amazing story. And I am sure after reading this book you will thank me for suggesting it to you.

Overall rating: 4.7/5

Book Review Of 'Life is What you Make It'

BOOK- LIFE IS WHAT YOU MAKE IT

AUTHOR- PREETI SHENOY

PAGES-224

BLURB-

Life is what you make it is based on a love story that has been set in India in the 90’s. it has been described by the readers as a book potraying how love, hope and determination can together win over even the destiny. It is a gripping tale of a few significant years of the protagonist’s life.

The novel revolves around a woman in her 20s, Ankita, who has a past haunting her like a nightmare. As she grows up from adolescence to a woman in her mid 20s, she wades through different situations, engages in affairs with a couple of guys and is set-back by her parents refusal to accept her situation.

As a result of non-stop upheavals in her life, Ankita develops bipolar disorder at one point of time.

The story revolves around Ankita’s struggles, determination, her decisions and her faith in self. The book beautifully describes how she gets acquainted with her bipolar disorder, how she decides to help her own self and how she battles these situations all by herself.

MY TAKE ON THE BOOK-

What attracted me the most is the title of the book. The title made me eager to try and read this book. I was in class IX, I still remember. One of our teachers told us to write a review on a book and that was when I first wrote my book review. Although it was a long time back, I feel happy recalling those days. And this was the first book I wrote a review on ‘Life is what you make it’.

The story is set in the time of 90’s and moves around two cities.

The protagonist Ankita is in her 20’s who seems to have issues from the past that haunts her present. The prologue starts with Ankita sitting on a chair outside the doctor’s office.

The story begins with flashback and there are letters being exchanged between Ankita and Vaibhav. As the story moves on it becomes more clear that Ankita’s parents are one of those typical Indian parents who are strict and doesn’t approve their girls being in the group of boys or doesn’t approve any guy calling at home. But somehow Ankita and Vaibhav kept in touch.

Abhi the guy who she met at an inter-collegiate event begins to woo her. Later they remained in contact though calls and messages and sometime meeting each other. Ankita didn’t tell Vaibhav about Abhi and neither did she told Abhi about Vaibhav. Pretending Vaibhav all is well.

Later with Ankita getting into MBA in different city, she refused Abhi and his plea to stay in touch.

(Only if she had told him that she would be in contact, may be Abhi would have survived. What I hated the most in this story is Ankita’s feelings toward Abhi. Abhi was just being helpless ‘coz Ankita was leaving the city soon and may be it happens. At times we become weak, we become empty to see the person drifting away from us, there’s a void which makes the heart heavy with the guilt of nothingness. He just asked her to be in contact but she was a rock. She didn’t reply and turned him off. That caused all the troubles and may be that was the reason Abhi was found dead in the beach the next morning. The waves bringing his body close to the shore.)

The story goes from one city to another when Ankita with all her hard work and determination makes it to her dream of MBA. But perhaps life had some other plan for her. she ended up being in a mental hospital.

This event followed a big mark on her because she knew Abhi and loved him at some point of time. Why Abhi died nobody knew but the reason of Abhi’s death was evident to Ankita.

She moved on to the next city with a broken heart and when every thing was going good, her parents found out the ‘love letters’ and turn on her. In front of her they burnt the letters, from this, a huge bunch of emotions filled her heart and thereon her problems arises. She begins to miss he classes and college. She finds herself in a disturbing situation partly due to her fault and partly due to destiny.

Read the story to know more about Ankita, Abhi and Vaibhav. How did she managed herself with the episodes of mania and depression is beautifully written in the book.

P.S.-  it is the story of Ankita’s illness and her fight with it. It is a story of will power and establishes that even destiny can be overcome by determination. It is a story of love and more a story of hope.

You won’t regret reading this book. J

Overall Rating- 4/5