Have you ever read Khaled Hosseini?

 “For you, a thousand times over.”

“One could not count the moons that shimmer on her roofs, or the thousand splendid suns that hide behind her walls.”

“I now know that some people feel unhappiness the way others love: privately, intensely, and without recourse.”

So what these all quotes are for? And more importantly whose quotes are these? Well, anyone who can figure out the answers to above questions can easily descry that these are by none other than ‘Khaled Hosseini’. All are in the chronological order of his books’ arrival. His three best-sellers : ‘The Kite Runner‘, ‘A Thousand Splendid Suns‘, and ‘And The Mountains Echoed‘ came within the course of ten years. It’s huge, isn’t it? Just three novels in ten years. But as they say, it takes time to carve a masterpiece, and with Khaled, it’s about to come up with a new master-piece every time.

The degree with which I liked his novels is in the order of they came out. That means ‘The Kite Runner’ effortlessly grabbed five stars from me, while ‘A Thousand Splendid suns’ bagged four dot five stars. I was struck hard by both the novels, my heart flinched at times, my lips smiled at few places, my eyes got moistened at other occasions, but I still liked his debut novel better than second. Though if the generalized idea is taken into consideration, his second novel has been given better rating than his debut one. But this is not the first time with me. I generally fall for what others don’t. I am yet to figure out if it has something to do with me or others.

Anyhow, his third novel, And The Mountains Echoed, could garner only three dot five stars. Reason being the measure of complications it had. Among these three, his third work has maximum number of characters and so the ample number of different locations. This was a different approach which he used but it didn’t go that well for him, or shall I say with me. These many characters did justice to their roles, but another misallocated purpose of serving readers with bewilderment was also fulfilled. Also, the dangling ending of a few chapters which were expected to be completed by the end of the book were left half-way. Probably, this is what Khaled wanted but I feel those chapters deserved to be completed; they could have given more intensity to his work.
This book is written in three major parts with smaller chapters within each; I loved the first part. It held such incidents which made my heart heavy and eyes wet. I really wished the other two parts could do the same to me. Nonetheless, I enjoyed this book too, maybe not the way I did other two, but third book too had Khaled’s flavour, his touch.

Why do I love his work? World where we already have enough grayness and darkness around, why to read and get involved in stories of betrayal and gloominess? The answer to it would be to do justice to such works as a reader. And I am a reader first then a writer. There are many people who write on plain topics, but only a few can leave an impact. There’re many who touch you at some level but rare are the ones who can choke you with intensity of the emotion in such a way you close your eyes and wish that you were not living that character.

All I want to say is – Khaled Hosseini is the one of those who knows when to touch which nerve of a human to make him smile or cry or jump in surprise, and I am in deep fondness of his work.

If you haven’t read him, it’s time you give him a chance. For those who are looking for a book to get started with reading, his books are one of the best choices you can kick start your reading with.

P.S. – I created the first and roughest draft of this post when I finished reading Khaled’s third novel. That was by the end of last year, 2016. But due to some reason or the other it stayed as a draft with me like many others. Here I am posting the honed write-up after four months. The delay, though, hasn’t altered my views in any way. In fact, re-reading this post has made me realize why I should re-read him, as reading him, I know, would never get enough for me.

I’d love to listen to your views, which need not to be in alignment with mine, on his work if you’ve read it. Do share them in comments section. 🙂

IF YOU ARE A FIRST- TIME VISITOR OF MY BLOG, DO REFER ‘First-Timers‘. IT WOULD HELP YOU IN EXPLORING THE PLACE.

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