And The Mountains Echoed by Khaled Hosseini

This novel begins in 1952 as a father recites a bed time story to his young son and daughter during an overnight trek across the Afghanistan desert on their way to Kabul. The tale, we soon learn, tells the truth of the father's journey for desperate to provide for his new wife and growing family, the father has agreed to sell his daughter to a wealthy couple unable to bear their own in a deal brokered by their valet, his brother.

Abdullah returns to their village with his father but feels the loss of his sister keenly;
"She was like the dust that clung to his shirt. She was in the silences that had become so frequent in the house, silence that welled up between their words, sometimes cold and hollow, sometimes pregnant with things that went unsaid, like a cloud filled with rain that never fell."

but never relinquishes the dream of being reunited with Pari.

At just four, Pari quickly settles into her new life but it is the story of her adoptive parents - the wild, provocative Nila and her introverted and much older husband Mr. Suleiman Wahdati, that unravels next as witnessed by Pari's uncle, Nabi. A marriage of convenience it soon disintegrates when Wahditi suffers a stroke and Nila flees to France, her mother's birthplace, with Pari. Nabi is left to nurse his invalid employer, remaining with him even as the war begins to rage around them.

Moving then to Paris, America while never straying far from war torn Afghanistan, the fates of Abdullah, Pari, and those connected to them are slowly revealed. It is an emotional, poignant journey that weaves its way in and out of character, time and place.

A beautifully written, heartbreaking story of loss and loss and hope.

It was hard to follow at times as it jumped between different times and the point of view of each of the characters.