Book Review: And The Mountains Echoed, by Khaled Hosseini

And the Mountains Echoed was last month's read for my book group, The Novelties. I was excited about this selection because I've read Kite Runner and loved every word.

This book, however, was difficult to follow. It almost felt like a compilation of short stories, all of which connect with each other in some way. I kept waiting to discover where the turning point would come and have the plot come together. It seems there wasn't really a plot to follow.

That being said, I did enjoy the book. It was a challenge trying to keep up with who is who and how they relate to each other, but that was part of the thrill to reading it. Whether or not you like this type of storytelling, Hosseini's style of writing is beautiful. Reading him is like reading poetry. You really get to know each character and can feel what they're feeling. I love that his stories help you see the world from the perspective of an Afghanistan native. I get the feeling, though, that we're only skimming the surface.

The discussion around this book in our book group meeting was animated and mixed. One person loved every word, and someone else absolutely did not enjoy it at all. Whatever side of that spectrum each of us fell on, we all decided it was difficult to follow and puzzling as to what the author's point to the story was.

As you can guess, my review of this book is mixed. I enjoyed reading it, but I couldn't figure out what the story was really about. I would give it about three and a half stars out of five.