Interlacing Themes – In Khaled Hosseini's The Kite Runner and And The Mountains Echoed

Khaled Hosseini, an Afghan born citizen of the United States, in his works shows a natural understanding of human bonding, human psyche and ways in which human mind connects. His debut novel The Kite Runner (TKR), a father–son story published in 2003, gleaned international acclaim. His third and recent And The Mountains Echoed (AME), a multi-generational and multi-cultural story published in 2013, also became a best seller. Common themes run through both the texts like common backdrop of Afghanistan; the choices we make define us and resonate through generations, fateful life-changing event(s), transformation of repressed emotions into physical ailments, memories/recollections, lies that we live half of our lives with, sense of loneliness, fear of abandonment, loyalty, humanity, commitment, honour, betrayal, sinning, escape, guilt, repentance, redemption, inventing and reinventing identities and others that bind them together like two different diversions of one single existence. In this chapter, we deal with a few of the afore-mentioned themes.