The sister of Parwana, Masooma is described (from Parwana’s perspective) as a beautiful young woman, desired by every man in her community. Although Masooma has planned to marry Saboor, Parwana’s connivances cause Masooma… The div reentered the room and found Baba Ayub standing over the broken glass, his shoulders slumped. The beautiful, troubled wife of Mr. Suleiman Wahdati, Mrs. Nila Wahdati is an unpredictable, romantic, and undeniably talented woman. When she first appears in the early chapters of the novel, she’s desperate to have… The wealthy head of the Wahdati’s household, Mr. Suleiman Wahdati is a mysterious character throughout most of Chapter Four of And the Mountains Echoed. After his wife, Nila Wahdati, and adopted daughter, Pari…

Still, Baba Ayub counted himself among the fortunate because he had a family that he cherished above all things. He loved his wife and never raised his voice to her, much less his hand. He valued her counsel and found genuine pleasure in her companionship. As for children, he was blessed with as many as a hand has fingers, three sons and two daughters, each of whom he loved dearly. His daughters were dutiful and kind and of good character and repute. To his sons he had taught already the value of honesty, courage, friendship, and hard work without complaint. They obeyed him, as good sons must, and helped their father with his crops. The cities, the roads, the countryside, the people I meet - they all begin to blur. I tell myself I am searching for something. But more and more, it feels like I am wandering, waiting for something to happen to me, something that will change everything, something that my whole life has been leading up to.” Medley, Mark (May 13, 2013). "Relative unease: Khaled Hosseini discusses And The Mountains Echoed". National Post . Retrieved September 5, 2013. Subsequent chapters expound on how the arrangement came to be: the children's stepmother, Parwana, grew up as the less-favored child to her beautiful twin sister Masooma. One day, in a flash of jealousy because Masooma and Saboor were to be wed, she pushed Masooma out of a tree resulting in paraplegia. Parwana subsequently spent several years caring for her sister until the latter asked her to help her commit suicide and to then marry Saboor. At Masooma's request Parwana takes Masooma out to the middle of nowhere and leaves her there. Their older brother, Nabi, left to work for Mr. Wahdati, a wealthy man in Kabul, and became infatuated with his wife, Nila. After Nila expressed dismay about her inability to have children, Nabi arranged for Pari to be sold to the couple, because Parwana has given birth to a son and Saboor cannot support 3 children. After Pari is sold in Kabul, Nabi is no longer welcome in the village. Where was I? Ah yes. There followed a forty-day mourning period. Every day, neighbors cooked meals for the family and kept vigil with them. People brought over what offerings they could—tea, candy, bread, almonds—and they brought as well their condolences and sympathies. Baba Ayub could hardly bring himself to say so much as a word of thanks. He sat in a corner, weeping, streams of tears pouring from both eyes as though he meant to end the village’s streak of droughts with them. You wouldn’t wish his torment and suffering on the vilest of men.Nila Wahdati is a young French-Afghan woman renowned for her sexually charged poetry who is married off to a wealthy Kabul businessman. According to Hosseini, many aspects of her character were derived from women he encountered during parties his parents hosted in Kabul in the 1970s, many of whom he recalls as "beautiful, very outspoken, temperamental...drinking freely, smoking". [16] At some point prior to the beginning of the story, she was apparently sterilized while undergoing treatment for an illness, leading her to buy Pari as an adopted daughter. Described as unusually beautiful and discontent, she later relocates to Paris following her husband's stroke and eventually commits suicide. Hosseini explained that he was unconcerned with making Nila likable—"I just wanted her to be real – full of anger and ambition and insight and frailty and narcissism." [16] The creature moved to a cabinet that sat near the curtains and removed from one of its drawers an hourglass. Do you know what that is, Abdullah, an hourglass? You do. Good. Well, the div took the hourglass, flipped it over, and placed it at Baba Ayub’s feet. Pari is Abdullah's younger sister who, at the age of three, is sold by her father Saboor to the wealthy Wahdati couple in Kabul. She and Abdullah are portrayed as having an unusually close relationship during her early years, though she forgets him along with the rest of her biological family following her adoption. She spends her adolescence and adulthood in France following her adoptive father's stroke and eventually becomes aware of her history through a posthumous letter from her uncle Nabi, who had arranged for her to be sold as a child. When she is finally reunited with Abdullah, he is unable to remember her due to his Alzheimer's. "I could see that if the reunion were to occur, it would occur on these terms and it wouldn't be the reunion we'd expect and perhaps the one we want," Hosseini explained. [16] The arrogant, narcissistic mother of Thalia, Madaline figures in Chapter Eight of And the Mountains Echoed. While she’s lifelong friends with Odelia, Odelia begins to resent her constant talk about husbands and…

He is not a criminal. Everything he owns he has earned. In the nineties, while half the guys he knew were out clubbing and chasing women, he had been buried in study, dragging himself through hospital corridors at two in the morning, forgoing leisure, comfort, sleep. He had given his twenties to medicine. He has paid his dues. Why should he feel badly? This is his family. This is his life. When you have lived as long as I have, the div replied, you find that cruelty and benevolence are but shades of the same color. Have you made your choice? I hold the note tightly against the blustering wind. I read for Pari the three scribbled sentences. They tell me I must wade into waters, where I will soon drown. Before I march in, I leave this on the shore for you. I pray you find it, sister, so you will know what was in my heart as I went under. There is a date too. August 2007. Parwana is the stepmother of Abdullah and Pari. She grew up in Shadbagh with her brother, Nabi, and twin sister, Masooma. Parwana is ill-favored for most of her life as opposed to the strikingly beautiful Masooma. This eventually results in what Rafia Zakaria describes as a "poignant tale of a plain twin whose single act of vengeance, of pushing her pretty sister off a swing results in a lifelong moral burden". [14] Masooma's accident leaves her paralyzed, leaving Parwana tortured by guilt and forced to care for her from then on. [14] After several years, Masooma persuades Parwana to leave her in the desert to die and marry Saboor, Abdullah and Pari's father. Khaled Hosseini's tour for AND THE MOUNTAINS ECHOED announced exclusively by Entertainment Weekly!". Riverhead Books. February 21, 2013. Archived from the original on September 28, 2013 . Retrieved September 5, 2013.

Hughes, Kim (May 16, 2013). "And the Mountains Echoed by Khaled Hosseini: Review". The Star . Retrieved August 24, 2013.

They say, Find a purpose in your life and live it. But, sometimes, it is only after you have lived that you recognize your life had a purpose, and likely one you never had in mind.” The fourth chapter consists of a letter, written by Nabi, the brother of Masooma and Parwana. Nabi, an old man as the chapter begins, describes his career working for the Wahdati family. As a young man, Nabi works as a cook and chauffeur for Mr. Suleiman Wahdati, a quiet, shy man. Shortly after he begins his job, Mr. Wahdati marries Mrs. Nila Wahdati, a beautiful, mysterious woman with whom Nabi is fascinated. As the years go on, Nabi becomes increasingly close with Nila, and is ultimately the one to suggest that Nila and Suleiman adopt Pari as their own child. While Saboor agrees, he comes to hate Nabi for his role in breaking up Saboor’s family. The novel begins with a tale of extraordinary sacrifice that has ramifications through generations of families. What do you think of Saboor's decision to let the adoption take place? How are Nila and Nabi implicated in Saboor's decision? What do you think of their motives? Who do you think is the most pure or best intended of the three adults? Ultimately, do you think Pari would have had a happier life if she had stayed with her birth family?It was the kind of love that, sooner or later, cornered you into a choice: either you tore free or you stayed and withstood its rigor even as it squeezed you into something smaller than yourself.” An unnamed character, and one of the antagonists of Chapter Seven of And the Mountains Echoed, The Commander is a powerful, intimidating leader, about whom we know very little, since he’s seen entirely from…

I have lived a long time, and one thing I have come to see is that one is well served by a degree of both humility and charity when judging the inner workings of another person's heart” In And the Mountains Echoed, Khaled Hosseini presents a multitude of windows into the souls affected by these events. The novel's rich kaleidoscope of images coalesces around one theme: the powerful and often excruciating legacy of family ties within the maelstrom of history.”— Shelf AwarenessThe book raises many deep questions about the wavering line between right and wrong, and whether it is possible to be purely "good"—or purely "bad." What do you think after reading the novel: Are good intentions enough to create good deeds? Can positive actions come from selfish motivations? Can bad come from positive intent? How do you think this novel would define a good person? How would you define one? Chapter Six concerns Pari’s relationship with Nila Wahdati, the woman she’s come to think of as her mother. At the chapter begins, Nila—now a middle-aged woman—has a poor relationship with her adopted daughter. She’s been a neglectful parent, despite building up a successful career as a poet. When Pari was a young teenager, Nila began seeing a man named Julien, for whom Pari had feelings, too. Julien and Nila’s relationship lasted only a few months. Several years later, while Pari was studying mathematics at the Sorbonne, she encountered Julien once again, and they began an affair of their own. When Pari worked up the courage to tell Nila about the affair, Nila laughed and told Pari that they were no longer mother and daughter. The div grunted again and studied Baba Ayub thoughtfully. After a time, it said, Very well, then. I will grant you your duel. But first I ask that you follow me.