Finished: And The Mountains Echoed (Hosseini) Book Club Book #2. A good, solid book by the author of The Kiterunner, a book on my favorites list. This one jumped around a little bit too much between characters, never really leaving me feeling complete about any one character's journey or story. The opening chapter really sucked me in as the poor Afghan villager, Saboor, tells his children, Abdullah and Pari the story of a monster, the div, who comes to the village each year to take one child away. The villagers must obey his decision or he will kill an entire family. Of course, the choice about which child to give up is at the center of the story, and a few years after the father of the child gives him up, the father goes in search of the div to kill him. No one has ever tried this before. The div says, before you kill me, let me show you something.....and the div shows him a virtual paradise amidst the heat and draught ravaged villages. All the children he has ever taken are running happily around in a green, paradise with plenty of water and being schooled and taught all kinds of manners, etc. So, in comes the key question of the novel. Should the father leave his son there where he is clearly better off physically or take him back to the village where he could die of poverty, starvation and/or cold, but be with his loving family. The father leaves his son there. So, as Saboor takes his children on their own journey into Kabul, we see how very close 10 year old Abdullah and 3 year old Pari are. We also soon see that Saboor is taking Pari to Kabul to be adopted by his brother-in-law's wealthy employers who cannot have biological children of their own. Abdullah is devastated, and Pari too young to remember. She's swept up in the whirlwind of the nice "lady" who takes care of her and grows up forgetting her village family. Abdullah is tormented the rest of his life, even after he moves to America and has a wife and daughter, also named Pari, of his own. Not until Abdullah is very old and clearly suffering from Alzheimer's or dementia does his sister discover that she was adopted and has a beloved brother. By the time Pari and Abdullah finally meet, Abdullah remembers nothing of his sister...so sad. However, his daughter, Pari, and his sister, Pari, have finally met and will live happily as family. So, in between all that, the book focuses on several other pairings of people and their ethical trials and tribulations. But, as quickly as someone is introduced, they are left at the end of their story...right when I wanted to know more. For instance, I would have loved to read more about how the injured girl, Roshi, was helped by the outgoing, but egotistical, Temur, after his seemingly well-intentioned cousin, Idris, dropped the ball on getting her help. Anyway, it was still a well written book that once again opened my eyes to the bigger world around me. I'm glad I read it. :-)