And the Mountains Echoed

“When you have lived as long as I have, the div replied, you find that cruelty and benevolence are but shades of the same colour.” 

This quote comes from the fable about the man who sacrifices his son to the div in order to save his village. The theme of sacrifice is at the core of the book, as Pari’s family sacrifices her to save the rest of the family. Without the extra mouth to feed, and with the Wahdatis’s money, Pari’s family will survive another season. Ironically, Pari’s family fares no better for this sacrifice later in the novel, as the next generation is homeless.

“A story is like a moving train: no matter where you hop on board, you are bound to reach your destination sooner or later.”

Nabi points out that stories have a definite ending, which mirrors that Pari loves math: there is a predictable quality to both things. Pari in particular has faced a lot of uncertainty in her life in living without answers from her adopted mother, and math, with its predictability, is a welcome reprieve. Hosseini also points to the symbolism of a story in starting his novel with a fable. 

“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.” 

This quote again considers the concept of living a story with no control over the end result. It’s only in hindsight that we see how the characters fit together and what consequences their actions had. 

“Julien asked what she saw in mathematics and she said she found it comforting...There was comfort to be found in the permanence of mathematical truths, in the lack of arbitrariness and the absence of ambiguity. In knowing that the answers may be elusive, but they could be found.” 

Like a story, a mathematical formula has a definite end result. Pari craves this certainty, as she’s never had any certainty growing up with Nila. Her desire to return to her own country and discover her roots is part of her search for a solution to her past. Her attempts to “solve” her past also appear in other metaphors she uses, like the puzzle metaphor. 

“What Pari had always wanted from her mother was the glue to bond together her loose, disjointed scraps of memory, to turn them into some sort of cohesive narrative.” 

Again, this quote points to Pari’s need to find the true story behind her chaotic life. The language here connects two of the metaphors Hosseini has used thus far; “narrative” is reminiscent of Markos’s story quote, and the gluing of scraps recalls the “puzzle” that Pari is trying to complete in finding her biological family. 

“Pari no longer feels the piercing urge to search for answers and roots. Because of Eric and his steadying, comforting companionship. And because of Isabelle, who has solidified the ground beneath Pari's feet.” 

Pari stops searching for answers briefly after marrying Eric. Hossein chooses this for his character for a few reasons. First, it serves the concept of memory loss, as a gap in time allows Pari and Abdullah to age and forget one another. Second, Pari stops searching because her needs are met in Eric and Isabelle—this indicates that Pari isn’t necessarily searching for her unknown brother, but she is just seeking the love and connection she never got from her mother. It’s only after Eric’s death that she feels the need to find her roots again.

“If I've learned anything in Kabul, it is that human behaviour is messy and unpredictable and unconcerned with convenient symmetries. But I find comfort in it, in the idea of a pattern, of a narrative of my life taking shape, like a photograph in a darkroom, a story that slowly emerges and affirms the good I have always wanted to see in myself. It sustains me, this story.” 

The symbol of a story again appears here in Markos’s thoughts. Like the train quote (#3), Markos notes the predictability of a story, but he also notes that in real life, humanity is too messy for “convenient symmetries.” Here, Hosseini is using mathematical language in “symmetry” to recall Pari’s dislike of chaos (and thus human behavior, particularly her mother’s). He is also making an ironic statement through Markos, as the stories he writes in this book do, in fact, contain many parallel, or symmetrical, concepts. 

“I couldn't wholly understand, linked beyond our names, beyond familial ties, as if, together, we completed a puzzle. I felt certain that if I listened closely enough to her story, I would discover something revealed about myself.” 

This quote from the young Pari introduces the symbol of the puzzle. Like her aunt, Pari has been trying to make sense of the chaos of her life—she has been trying to put together the pieces of her puzzle.