Hosseini's most assured and emotionally gripping story yet. Hosseini's narrative gifts have deepened over the years. And the Mountains Echoed grapples with many of the same themes that crisscross his early novels: the relationship between parents and children, and the ways the past can haunt the present. It shares a similar penchant for mapping terrain midway between the boldly colored world of fable and the more shadowy, shaded world of realism. We finish this novel with an intimate understanding of who his characters are and how they've defined themselves over the years through the choices they have made between duty and freedom, familial responsibilities and independence, loyalty to home and exile abroad. A deeply affecting choral work, it is a testament both to his intimate knowledge of their inner lives.