海角大神

Early reviews are in and they鈥檝e confirmed what we鈥檝e known all along: Khaled Hosseini鈥檚 latest novel, 鈥淎nd the Mountains Echoed,鈥� is a hit. It鈥檚 also a surprisingly nuanced, morally complex, exquisitely told tear-jerker.

Take it from the Washington Post鈥檚 book reviewer, Marcela Valdes.

鈥淚鈥檓 not an easy touch when it comes to novels, but Hosseini鈥檚 new book, 'And the Mountains Echoed,' had tears dropping from my eyes by Page 45,鈥� she writes, positing that Hosseini鈥檚 鈥渟ecret ingredient might be intense emotion.鈥�

Hosseini鈥檚 third book, 鈥淎nd the Mountains Echoed,鈥� hits stores Tuesday, six years after his previous two books captivated millions of readers and spent years on the bestseller list. His 2003 debut novel, 鈥淭he Kite Runner,鈥� was published in 70 countries and spent almost two years on bestseller lists. 鈥淎 Thousand Splendid Suns鈥� also became a bestseller in 2007. Together, the two books have sold more than 38 million copies.

鈥淎nd the Mountains Echoed鈥� isn't due out until tomorrow but pre-orders of the book, in both print and e-book versions, have already exceeded those of "A Thousand Splendid Suns" by almost 95 percent on Amazon.com.

Like the previous two, Hosseini鈥檚 latest novel is a heart-wrenching story. 鈥淎nd the Mountains Echoed鈥� is set partly in Afghanistan, but action also takes place in California, Paris, and the Greek Islands. Early reviews have called it a story about family, separation, and sibling relationships. It begins with an Afghan tale about a horrific monster called a div who comes to an Afghan village to demand the sacrifice of a child. The consequences of the resulting sacrifice of a favored son echo through the lives of all the characters explored in the book, most importantly siblings Abdullah and Pari.

Unlike 鈥淭he Kite Runner鈥� and 鈥淎 Thousand Splendid Suns,鈥� 鈥淎nd the Mountains Echoed鈥� is constructed as a series of stories, each set in a different place and time and told from a different point of view.

鈥淚n less skillful hands, this structure might seem more like a compilation of short stories than a novel,鈥� writes the Post鈥檚 Valdes. 鈥淏ut Hosseini carefully divvies up details about the circumstances preceding and following Abdullah and Pari鈥檚 fateful afternoon, giving the book a satisfying sense of momentum and consequence.鈥�

One thing that may come as a surprise to readers: There鈥檚 far less "Afghanistan" and "conflict" in this novel. It appears to be a deliberate decision by Hosseini to reframe the country in readers鈥� psyches as any other setting and not as a country defined by war, conflict, and turmoil.

鈥淚 hope a day will come when we write about Afghanistan, where we can speak about Afghanistan in a context outside of the wars and the struggles of the last 30 years,鈥� he told NPR. 鈥淚n some way I think this book is an attempt to do that.鈥�

Husna Haq is a Monitor correspondent.