And the Mountains Echoed

This chapter comes in the form of a letter addressed to Mr. Markos from Nabi. He uses Nila Wahdati as the bookend to his story. It essentially becomes a confession as to what led up to Pari’s “sale,”, but it also outlines the divorce of Nila and Suleiman Wahdati and Nabi’s the years of service Nabi remained with Suleiman.

His first confession is of leaving his sisters in Shadbagh because he “pictured [his] youth ebbing away” and left to “help provide for [his] sisters […] but also to escape” (75).

NabiHe cooked for Mr. Wahdati and was his chauffeur. He would drive him around the city, often for hours often hours at a time and not do a lot. Nabi tells of a time he drove Suleiman to a house more elaborate and larger than his, and a beautiful woman stepped outside with him. Nabi watched from the car, entranced by this beautiful woman. When Suleiman comes back to the car, he announces to Nabi that he is getting married.

Nabi witnesses the lurid gossip that surrounds the woman, and though he chastises the gossipmongers for having no respect for Mr. Wahdati, he is still intrigued by all of the licentious details about the soon- to- be Mrs. Wahdati.

Nabi continues his story, providing details of the unhappy marriage the Wahdatis had. They were quiet with each other and rarely spent time together. Nabi iwas still intrigued by the exquisite Nila and watches her every move. He readily enjoys driving her around Kabul just to spend time with her: . “Nila pushed against every single notion [he] had ever had of how a woman was to behave, a trait that [he] knew met with the stout disapproval of people [...] but to [him] it only added to her already enormous allure and mystery” ...she was an extraordinary woman, and [he] went to bed that night feeling like [he] was perhaps more than ordinary [himself]. This was the effect she had one [him]" (87). The conversations between Nila and Nabi grew in length and depth and Nilaa began complainsing to Nabi about her husband and his offhand arrogance and lack of adventure. It is clear that Suleiman's mother did not approve of their marriage, either.

One day, Nila asks Nabi if he would take her to his village so she can meet his family. He reluctantly agrees, and she gets all sorts of attention when she arrives , with her bare arms and luxurious beauty. However, she is kind and friendly with everyone there, and they go and have tea with Saboor, Parwana, and the children. They are all shy around her as she triesd to engage them in conversation, and she is quite taken by beautiful little Pari. On the way home, she cries in the car. Nabi tries to console her, saying she will be blessed with children soon. She tells Nabi that they had "scoped it all out of her in India. [She's] hollow inside" (94 she cannot have children).

After spending a few days wallowing in depression, Nila is visited by her father, and she begins eating again. She also wants to throw a party. At the party, she is called on to recite some of her poetry, and the poem she recites is the tale of Saboor and Parwana and the loss of their child in the winter. This is the first instance that Nabi thinks the spell that Nila has over him will be broken. On another day, he takes her to town to buy a new purse, but she ends up having an affair while there. He helps her lie, but he hopes “that the hold she had on [him] had loosened at last,” but it had not (100).

Then, Nabi tells of an idea the "idea" that has taken root: “. He believed that his "proposal was born of goodwill and honest intentions. Something that, though painful in better short term, would lead to a greater long-term good for all involved” (100). He offers the idea to Nila, and she convinces Suleiman. Nabi knows his brother is desperate for money, and the coming winter will be worse than the one previous. Nabi also believed that this could possibly win the heart of Nila for he is providing her with something no other man could—a child. - a child. But the guilt is palpable as he describes the “emotional mayhem” that takes place from tearing Abdullah and Pari apart (102).

Once the Wahdati’s adopt Pari, the text notes that they at last look like a “proper family.” "One of the effects of Pari's entrance was that for the first time the Wahdati household resembled a proper family" (103). Nabi fadsed into the background as Nila's attention now iwas totally focused on Pari. Nabi was also "dismissed" from Saboor's family lifedismisses Nabi as well, seeing as he was the “instrument of his family's rupture” (105).

One day in the spring of 1955, Mr. Wahdati suffers a stroke. Nabi takes control of things, for Nila is frozen with fear and does not know what to do. Because of Mr. Wahdati's solitary nature, Nila takes advantage of his distaste in visitors and retreats to spend most of her days in Pari's room:. “Now the house was vacant, and she faced spousal duties for which she was uniquely ill suited. She could not do it. And she didn't” (108). She eventually leaves for Paris, taking Pari with her, and Nabi is left to take care of Suleiman. Nila says, “It was you Nabi [...] it was always you. Didn't you know?” (109). Nabi does not understand her words, and she leaves without explaining.

After Nila left leaves with Pari, Nabi seessaw no use in all of the other servants around because his work now only involved just himself and Suleiman. He becomesame the gardener, the housekeeper, and did the laundererry. Suleiman tellsold Nabi to give himself whatever salary he wantsed.

As he iwas cleaning out a closet one day, Nabi comes across all of Mr. Wahdati's old sketchbooks. He flipsped through them and seesaw that he is the subject of all of the sketches. Nila's cryptic message that it was “always [him]” rang more true inrings his ears; Mr. Wahdati is in love with him.. He iwas now unsure of staying with Mr. Wahdati:  once he discovered this secret. “A thing like this could not be escaped, pushed aside. Yet how could I leave while he was in such a helpless state?” (113). He knowsew he needsed to find a suitable replacement for himself if he canould no longer work for Mr. Wahdati.

Three years pass, and a suitable replacement cannot be found. Nabi had reinstatedreinstates the morning walks, despite Suleiman's initial embarrassment of being seen in his wheelchair. One sunny afternoon in a park, twenty-one21 years after Nabi began working for him, Mr. Wahdati admits his attraction to Nabi. It sounds eerily similar to Nabi's attraction to Nila. Suleiman urges Nabi to leave and find himself a wife. His reasons for staying with Suleiman had changed over the years, from obligation to acceptance of his duties to him as a comfort—t - to be loved and needed. He also feels elt no desire to have a child. Suleiman demands of him something, but the text doesn’t say what. we are not aware of.

Nabi then shifts his letter to include the details of the wars in Afghanistan from the 1980s and then, when war reached the city of Kabul in the 1990s. Militiamen would come came into the once beautiful Wahdati home and tookake whatever furniture or luxury items they could find. Bombs and bullets frequented their street.. B"Like the house, Suleiman and I too were wearing down" (123) as they were both becoming old men.men were aging. The tension outside was mirrored bymirrored the tension between them, as Nabi and Suleiman began fighting as well.

One morning in the summer of 2000, Nabi comesame to Suleiman's room to find his breathing labored, and Suleiman is unable to speak. It is time for Nabi to execute the “promise” he had made years before. He gives him a kiss and then suffocates him with a pillow. In Suleiman's will, he leaves Nabi everything.

After Suleiman's death, Nabi struggles with his newfound solitude. Mr. Markos arrives at the Wahdati household in 2002, as an aid worker who and needs a place of residence while he does his work. Markos offers money, but Nabi refuses, seeing the good in Markos coming to “this godforsaken city to help [Nabi's] homeland” and so offers the residence for free (129).

At the end of his letter, Nabi asks Mr. Markos for two things:  - to be buried near Suleiman and to find his niece, Pari. He leaves money, the house, and his other belongings to Pariher in his will. “Please tell her [...] that I cannot know the myriad consequences of what I set into motion” (131).