![]() ![]() Now his father has walked Abdullah and Pari across miles of desert, from their tiny village to the great city of Kabul, in hopes that one brutal act - a bargain with two rich devils - will save their family from the next ruthless winter. The previous winter, the cold seeped into his family’s shack and froze his 2-week-old stepbrother to death. Abdullah is the son of a broke day laborer his mother died giving birth to his sister, Pari. The killer scene is set in Kabul in 1952, in a home so heavy with fruit trees and privilege that when 10-year-old Abdullah crosses its threshold, he feels as if he has entered a palace. I’m not an easy touch when it comes to novels, but Hosseini’s new book, “ And the Mountains Echoed,” had tears dropping from my eyes by. In his case, the secret ingredient might be intense emotion. Hosseini’s first two novels, “ The Kite Runner” (2003) and “ A Thousand Splendid Suns” (2007), spent a combined total of 171 weeks on the bestseller list. Or perhaps it just means that some writers, like Khaled Hosseini, know how to whisk rough moral fiber into something exquisite. It suggests that readers crave more than simplistic escape. So it always renews my faith when a popular novelist shows a decided preference for moral complexity. ![]() In most cases, ambiguity is stripped away to appeal to the greatest number and lowest common denominator. ![]()
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