Echoes of the Mountains —— Learn how to love among all sentient beings

As the last part of the "Afghan Trilogy", Echoing the Mountains weakens the historical background and focuses on the family changes and the fate of the characters for 6 years, but it is magnificent and delicate. Similar to the story-telling method in Arabian Nights, the novel tells the love and hate of eight ordinary people. These stories seem to be independent, but the characters are intertwined, and all this begins with a helpless choice 6 years ago.

In 1952, Abdullah's family lived in an ordinary village in Afghanistan, facing poverty, hunger and cold. Three years ago, his mother died in childbirth, leaving his sister Pali behind, and Abdullah assumed the responsibility of caring for her sister like a brother. He has a deep affection for his sister, changing her diapers, putting her to sleep and exchanging new shoes for her favorite peacock feathers. Father Sabl worked day and night but couldn't support his family. His first child after remarriage died in the cold winter. Now he has another child, but winter is coming again. At the suggestion of my uncle Nabi, my father decided to sell Paley to a rich family without children in Kabul. Paley grew up carefree to 6 years old and went to France with "mother" Nella. Studying, falling in love, getting married, having children, and becoming a promising young professor of mathematics are not smooth sailing, but compared with the traditional women in Afghanistan, it is a different world. Paley was still young when she left her brother, and soon forgot about family of origin, but she always felt that a part of her heart was missing, and finally she knew that she had a biological brother. However, when she crossed the ocean with joy to meet Abdullah in the United States, her brother was already suffering from Az Harmo.

If this is the whole story, it's too common. It's neither a typical Afghan background nor a tortuous story. But unlike the first two books, Husseini Khaled is committed to building a universal theme-love, which is conventional, but everyone can't avoid it.

Let's start with Parvana, Abdullah's stepmother. She and Masooma are twin sisters, but Parvana has been living in the shadow of her sister. Masooma is clever and beautiful, and can attract the attention of all men wherever she goes, but Parvana can be called "ordinary" at most. She is not as good as her sister in everything, and even being born is more difficult than her. Even so, their feelings are very deep. When they were in adolescence, they both fell in love with Sabl. Parvana stole a beautiful notebook and wanted to give it to him, but her sister beat her to it. While playing on the branch, Masooma told her sister that she had found a notebook at home, and I didn't know whose it was, so I gave it to Sabl, and Sabl was coming to propose to her soon. Perhaps Masooma was suspected of stealing his notebook, perhaps Masooma was careless and deliberately showing off, perhaps she robbed her sweetheart, or both. Parvana suddenly shook the branches and Masooma fell from the sky. Since then, Parvana has been taking care of her paralyzed sister until Sabl's wife died and intends to remarry with Parvana. Masooma didn't want to be a burden to her sister and committed suicide in the desert.

Of all the love stories, Nabi's love is the most eye-catching. Nabi is the brother of Abdullah's stepmother, Parvana. He went to Kabul to make a living in 1947. By chance, he came to Vahdati's house to be a chef. Mr. Wahdati fell in love with him at first sight, so despite Nabi's poor cooking and poor driving at first, Wahdati kept him with him, and Nabi knew nothing about it, and he fell in love with his hostess Nella. In order to please Nila, he told her jokes, found opportunities to get along with her alone, and took her to his hometown to find creative inspiration. Then he did something he regretted for life: in order to comfort Nila, who could not have children, he brokered the sale of Abdullah's sister Parry to the Wahdati couple. After Mr. Wahdati suffered a stroke, Nila took Parry to France. When Nabi was sorting things out, she found that every painting of the male owner was related to her: Nabi driving, Nabi taking a nap, Nabi smoking ... After several struggles, Nabi decided to stay with Wahdati until his death. In the end, Nabi also fell in love with Wahdat. In 21, when Nabi died, he wrote everything he knew in a letter, which was left to plastic surgeon Marcos, who finally found Paley in France, and it was this letter that made up for the gap in Paley's life.

After the mother and daughter Nella brought Parry to France, she became more and more addicted to alcohol, and she was as free as ever. Nyla is extremely feminine, and the men around her have changed one after another. As long as she takes the initiative, no one can escape. However, Paley's appearance is ordinary, and her figure is also ordinary. Because of this, she has a subtle jealousy for her mother. When Pali was in primary school, Nella dated with Julian, an economics professor. Ten years later, Pali was with him. Nella felt betrayed and committed suicide. Paley has been obsessed with the joys and sorrows of life, but she doesn't know that her mother's greatest gift is to take her out of Afghanistan and escape from a place where there are 1 tragedies per square mile, so that she can pursue life freely.

After father and daughter Pali left, father Sabl died of overwork. Abdullah fled to Pakistan and immigrated to the United States with his wife to run an Afghan restaurant and named his daughter Pali. Perhaps the departure of his sister caused Abdullah's fear of separation from his relatives. He kept his daughter from leaving her. Whether she went to the aquarium with her teachers and classmates when she was a child or went to study in a different place when she grew up, Paley felt that she had been bound in a cage. After a long time, Paley subconsciously stopped exploring the world around her. She avoided love, and after her mother died, she took care of her sick father at home every day. At the suggestion of my aunt, Paley sent her father to a professional nursing home and applied for the qualification of studying in the College of Humanities and Arts. I think she finally found a way to get in touch with the world.

When the iqbal family, the half-brother of father and son Abdullah, returned to Afghanistan from Pakistan, they found that their house base had been occupied by drug lords, and the title deed had been deliberately lost by the judge. They looked up and decided to assassinate the drug lords, but they were killed instead. Drug lords grow poppies in different provinces, build hospitals and schools in Shadbagh after making money, and lend money to the poor to do business. It's hard to describe him in simple words like good or bad, but he has always set up an image of being brilliant and upright in front of his son Adel. He told his son that he planted corn and all the money was used to help the residents of Shadbagh. Adel also thought his father was great until iqbal's son tore up the lie and told him the truth. Adel struggled for a while, finally reluctantly accepted the fact and chose to continue to love his father.

Mother and son Marcos lived with his mother on an island in Greece since childhood. He loved photography and wanted to explore a bigger world, but he didn't want to be stuck on the island all his life. As an adult, Marcos left his hometown, traveled around the world and eventually became a plastic surgeon. Now he works for a non-profit organization in Kabul. When he went home to visit relatives, he found that his mother, whom he hadn't seen for two years, was aging so fast, her hair was gray, she was slow to move, and she was suffering from gradual freezing. Marcos was determined to be a prodigal son since he was a child, and he realized that his mother and hometown were the places he would dream about in the future. Contrary to Marcos, Saizeriya, who didn't know who her biological father was, was injured by her mother's boyfriend's vicious dog beyond recognition. She was left on the island and lived with Marcos and her son. She never wanted to leave the island, and stayed with Max's mother for decades. Saizeriya was abandoned by her mother when she was a child. She especially cherished the company of her life, but Max never realized that his mother would leave him one day.

The brothers Idris and timur are cousins. They immigrated to the United States since childhood, and now they are back in Kabul to deal with their parents' property. Unlike timur, who is flexible and outgoing, Idris is not sociable, so when timur deals with government officials, he decides to do something meaningful: visit a sick little girl in the hospital every day. In daily communication, the little girl became dependent on him. Before leaving, he confidently told the nurse that he would take the girl to the United States for medical treatment. Perhaps he was proud that he had finally done something beyond his brother. However, when he returned to the United States, he was immediately pulled into the fast track of life and work, and the matter of seeking medical help was rejected by his boss, and he gradually gave up. A few years later, he found that the girl came to the United States for medical treatment with the help of timur. Her thick hair covered the scar on her head well, but her younger brother, who has always been publicity, never talked about it publicly.

Generally speaking, the story context of Echoing the Mountains is not very clear. It is not like a novel, but more like a collection of stories. But these stories are unique because of a common theme. The author does not particularly highlight the national background, and the theme is not so clear, but this book is more delicate than the first two, and it slowly presents a vulgar topic to readers, that is, "love between people" and "love between families". Everyone knows that "love" is inevitable, but not everyone can handle it well, and it is always flawed more or less.

The story of plastic surgeon Marcos has been criticized. Many people think this chapter is like a running account, but this story should arouse everyone's attention. When I was a child, everyone had a dream of traveling around the world and becoming a lone ranger. When I grow up, no matter whether my dream comes true or not, there will always be a moment when you realize that home is the harbor and family is the last resort. Even the lonely and rich Vahdati needs a Nabi to accompany him. No one can really live independently and coldly in this world, and most things can't be done by one person, especially life.

In this book, the author's writing ability is further improved, and he begins to try various writing skills and widely uses "stream of consciousness". Perhaps because of the new translation, the language of this novel is more beautiful than the first two. Here are some excerpts.

you must gain something and lose something before you can talk about courage.

if you are poor, you can only spend money on pain.

Well water is full, river water is rising, Dongshan Mountain is green, and wild flowers are blooming.

Look at the floating clouds floating across the moon.

Abdullah can't imagine that his father used to swing, and he was also a child. A child like Abdullah was carefree and carefree, running wildly with children in the wild. Father, his hands are covered with scars, and his face is engraved with tired lines. Father, it seems that he was born with a shovel and dirt under his nails.

Today, I saw the face I was looking for. I saw the closed moon, the shame of flowers, and the incalculable elegance.

He will imagine the feathers coming loose from the birds, dancing and whirling in the violent airflow in the clouds, above the thousands of feet on earth, being carried and pushed by the howling wind, flying over thousands of miles of desert and hundreds of mountains, overcoming all obstacles, and finally falling safely at the foot of the boulder, which will be discovered by his sister.

The sun shines on the lake, scattering into thousands of tiny spots in Qian Qian, undulating in the water waves.

what she suffered was neither unfair nor excessive.

I can only imagine that for some people, especially for some women, marriage-even an unhappy marriage like this-is an escape from a more unhappy state.

I understand now that some people feel unhappy because of the way others love: secretly, passionately and helplessly.

There are either no answers to the questions in life, or there are too many answers, so I can't figure them out.

if an avalanche buries you and you fall under a lot of snow, you won't know which side you are on and which side you are on. You wanted to dig yourself out, but you chose the wrong direction, so you dug yourself into death.

I struggled to pursue it, but I gave up halfway, and every time I came to a dead end.

The world can't see inside you. It doesn't care about your hopes, dreams and sorrows at all.

Beauty is a huge and improper gift, which is both arbitrary and stupid.

human behavior is chaotic and unpredictable, which has nothing to do with the symmetry of convenience. However, I have also found comfort in the belief of what kind of life mode I choose and how my life story takes shape. Just like a photo in a darkroom, the story will slowly emerge to confirm the goodness I have always wanted to see in myself.

people think that they live by what they want, but in fact, what dominates them is what they are afraid of, not what they don't want.

but time, it's like beauty, you always don't have as much as you think.

I feel that I am used to this glass, and I am afraid that once it is broken, and I am alone, I will be carried out and rushed into the unknown Wang Yang, helpless, lost and out of breath.

In the end, I panicked, ran back to the familiar corner, got into the hole and the crack in the wall, and returned to my life at home.

I often think of us as two leaves, falling from the same tree and scattered by the wind, but we can still find the deeply entangled roots several miles apart.

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