It is hard to predict turn of events in our lives, harder when there is poverty and war to contend with. It is not always that we have the ability to recognise how bad things can get, when we have taken for granted relationships which have always been there in our lives.Sometimes we have to put up with situations where in we must sacrifice a finger to save the hand. And when these relationships are severed or sacrificed to 'save the hand", lives take new turns; they may never be the same ever again.

Khaled Hosseini, an Afghan born doctor-turned-writer, has a characteristic tinge of emotions in his writings, when it comes to narrating stories weaved around unfortunate events like war and poverty. His 'Thousand Splendid Suns' is an amazing novel and his new novel "And The Mountains Echoed" is a testament to Hosseini's genius when it comes to stories revolving around Afghanistan.

Pari and Abdullah are siblings living with their father and step mother in Shadbagh, a Godforsaken village in Afghanistan. Abdullah is more like Pari's parent than her brother, he will do anything and everything to keep his sister happy. Little did he expect that his life would change for ever when his sister is adopted by the Wahadatis who are the employers of their uncle Nabi. The story portrays different plots where Mr.Wahadati deals with his obsession of his cook Nabi, fully aware that his 'obsession' is ill timed in 1960s Afghanistan. The story takes you across the globe talking about war-displaced people, people with dreams, and people with lost brothers and sisters.

It is in the end that Pari finds her brother in the other side of the world. She accepts the fact that she and her brother have been strangers to each other all their lives. But their love for each other is unspoken but it exists in the long forgotten days of their childhood like a page in a history book.

If you are looking for a book full of real emotions of loss and life. If you want a book which applauds the simplicity and complexity of our relationships, the qualities that bind us to our roots and yet distinguish and detach us from the same then go get your copy of "And The Mountains Echoed" by Khaled Hosseini.