1952, the Abdullah family living in an ordinary village in Afghanistan faced poverty, hunger and cold. Three years ago, their mother died in childbirth, leaving their sister Paley, and Abdullah took care of her like his brother. He has deep feelings for his sister, changing her diapers, putting her to sleep, changing her new shoes and changing her favorite peacock feathers. Father Sabl works day and night, but he can'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 until she was 6 years old and went to France with Nella, her mother. Studying, falling in love, getting married, having children and becoming a promising young math professor are not smooth sailing, but compared with traditional Afghan women, it is a different world. Paley was young when she left her brother, and soon forgot about her family background, but she always felt that she was missing a part of her heart and finally 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 Alzheimer's disease.
If this is the whole story, it will be too ordinary, with neither typical Afghan background nor tortuous storyline. But unlike the first two books, Husseini Khalid is committed to building a universal theme-love, which is established by convention, but everyone can't avoid it.
Sisters, let's start with Abdullah's stepmother Parvana. She and Masooma are twin sisters, but Parvana has always lived in the shadow of her sister. Masooma is smart and beautiful, and he can attract the attention of all men wherever he goes, while Parvana can only be called "ordinary" at best. She is inferior to her sister in all aspects, and even being born is more difficult than her. Even so, their feelings are deep. When they were teenagers, 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, Masuma told her sister that she found a notebook at home. I didn't know whose it was, so I gave it to Sabl, and Sabl was going to propose to her soon. Maybe Masooma was suspected of stealing his notebook, maybe Masooma was careless and deliberately showing off, maybe she robbed her sweetheart, or both. Parvana suddenly shook the branch and Masuma fell from the sky. Since then, Parvana has been taking care of her paralyzed sister until Sabl's wife died, and she plans to remarry Parvana. Masooma didn't want to be a burden to her sister and committed suicide in the desert.
Of all the love stories, Navi's love is the most striking one. Nabi is the younger brother of Abdullah's stepmother Parvana. He went to Kabul on 1947 to make a living. 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 driving skills at first, Wahdati kept him around. Nabi knew nothing about it and he fell in love with his hostess Nella. In order to please Nella, he told her jokes, found opportunities to be alone with her, and took her to her hometown for creative inspiration. Then he did something that he regretted for the rest of his life: in order to comfort Nila, who was infertile, he sold Abdullah's sister Parry to the Wahdati couple. After Vahdadi's stroke, Nyala took Parry to France. When Navi was sorting things out, she found that every painting of the man was related to her: Navi was driving, Navi was taking a nap, Navi was smoking ... After several struggles, Nabi decided to stay with Vahdati until his death. In the end, Nabi also fell in love with Wahdat. In 20 10, Nabi died. He wrote everything he knew in a letter, which was left to plastic surgeon Marcos. He 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 very feminine, and the men around her have changed one after another. As long as she takes the initiative, no one can escape However, Paley looks ordinary and has an ordinary figure. Because of this, she has a subtle jealousy of her mother. When Barry was in elementary school, Nella dated Julian, an economics professor. Ten years later, Barry 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 1000 tragedies per square mile, so that she can pursue life freely.
After father and daughter Pali left, father Saber died of overwork. Abdullah fled to Pakistan, immigrated to the United States with his wife, ran an Afghan restaurant, and named his daughter Pali. Perhaps the departure of her sister caused Abdullah's fear of being separated from his relatives. He wouldn't let his daughter leave 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 trapped in a cage. After a long time, Paley subconsciously stopped exploring the world around her. She ran away from love. After her mother died, she took care of her sick father at home every day. At the suggestion of menstruation, Paley sent his 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 father and son Abdullah's half-brother, returned to Afghanistan from Pakistan, they found that their house base was occupied by drug lords and the title deed was deliberately lost by the judge. After searching, they decided to assassinate the drug Lord, but they were killed. 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 is difficult to describe him with simple words such as good or bad, but he has always established a glamorous and upright image 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. Adele also thought his father was great until iqbal's son tore up the lie and told him the truth. Adele struggled for a while, finally reluctantly accepted the fact and chose to continue to love her father.
Mother and son Marcos lived with their mother on an island in Greece since childhood. He loves photography, wants to explore a bigger world, and doesn't want to be stuck on the island all his life. As an adult, Marcos left his hometown and traveled around the world, eventually becoming a plastic surgeon. Now he works in 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 suffered from the gradual freezing. Marcos was determined to be a prodigal son since he was a child. He realized that his mother and hometown were his dream places in the future. Contrary to Max, Saizeriya, who didn't know who his real father was, was injured beyond recognition by her mother's boyfriend's vicious dog. She was left on the island to live with Marcos and her son. She never wanted to leave the island. She has been with Max's mother for decades. Saizeriya was abandoned by his mother when he was a child. She especially cherishes the company in life, but Max never realized that his mother would leave him one day.
Brothers Idris and Timur are cousins. They immigrated to the United States as children and now return to 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: go to the hospital to see a sick little girl 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. Maybe he is proud that he has finally done something beyond his brother. But when he returned to the United States, he was immediately pulled into the fast lane of life and work. His boss refused to seek medical treatment, and he gradually gave up. A few years later, he found that the girl went to the United States for medical treatment with Timur's help. Her thick hair covered the scar on her head well, and her brother, who has always been very ostentatious, never said it publicly.
Generally speaking, the story context of "Mountains Echo each other" 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. It is always flawed more or less.
The story of plastic surgeon Marcus has been criticized. Many people think this chapter is like a running account, but this story should attract everyone's attention. When I was a child, everyone had a dream of traveling around the world and becoming a lone ranger. When you grow up, no matter whether your dreams come true or not, there will always be a moment when you realize that your home is a harbor and your family is the last resort. Even the lonely and rich Wahdat needs a Nabi to accompany him. No one in this world can really live independently and coldly, and most things can't be done by one person, especially life.
In this book, the author's writing ability was further improved, and he began to try various writing skills and widely used "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 to talk about courage.
If you are poor, you can only spend your pain as money.
Well water is full, river water rises, Dongshan Mountain is green, and wild flowers bloom.
Look at the clouds floating across the moon.
Abdullah can't imagine that his father used to swing, and he was once a child. Children like Abdullah, carefree, carefree, run with the children. Father, his hands are full of 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 have been looking for. I saw the closed moon, the shame of flowers, and the incalculable elegance.
He will imagine the feathers loose from birds dancing and spinning in the fierce airflow in the clouds, being carried and pushed by the whistling wind thousands of feet above the earth, flying over thousands of deserts and hundreds of mountains, overcoming all obstacles, and finally landing safely at the foot of a boulder, which will be discovered by his sister.
Sunlight shines on the lake and scatters into 1000 dots in Qian Qian, fluctuating in the water waves.
What she suffered was neither unfair nor excessive.
I can only imagine that for some people, especially 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 them: secretly, warmly and helplessly.
The problems in life either have no answers or have too many answers to sort out.
If an avalanche buries you and you fall under a lot of snow, you won't know where you are and where you are. You wanted to dig yourself out, but you chose the wrong direction, so you dug yourself up to death.
Hard pursuit, but give up halfway, every time into a dead end.
The world can't see your heart. It doesn't care about your hopes, dreams and sorrows.
Beauty is a huge and inappropriate gift. It comes at random and is extremely stupid.
Human behavior is chaotic and unpredictable, and has nothing to do with the symmetry of convenience. However, I also find comfort in my belief in what kind of life mode I choose and how my life story is formed. Like a photo in a darkroom, the story will slowly emerge, confirming the beauty I have always wanted to see in myself.
People think they live by what they want, but in fact, what dominates them is what they are afraid of and what they don't want.
But time, like beauty, you always have less than you think.
I feel used to this kind of glass. I am afraid that once it is broken, I will be carried out and rushed into the unknown Wang Yang, feeling helpless, lost and out of breath.
Finally, I panicked, ran back to the familiar corner, got into the hole and the crack in the wall, and returned to my home life.
I often think of us as two leaves, falling from the same tree, blown away by the wind, separated from Wan Li, but still finding the deeply entangled roots.
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