And the Mountains Echoed

The story moves has moved back to Shadbagh-e-Nau at the installation of a new school for girls. Adel's father, Baba- jan (Commander Sahib), is thanked and called a great man to Adel. As Adel's father makes his speech, he is met with a lot of applause, asking for the young girls of Afghanistan to excel in their studies, to nurture Afghanistan back to health.

Commander Sahib's time as a soldier was spent in Jihad, fighting the Russians. Sahib's father had started the improvement of Shadbagh by opening a clinic, but now Commander Sahib financesd a lot of these projects right from his own pocket.

An old man with a young boy, both filthy, approach Kabir, the bodyguard, wishing to speak with Baba-jan but he is turned away. They drive back to the compound where Adel and his parents live; it is surrounded by high walls topped with coiled barbed wire. It is located in Shadbagh-e-Kohna (Old Shadbagh). Adel is sad that his father has to leave for two weeks on business. His father explains that the work he does is to help the people of Shadbagh and that without his work, they would suffer. This father and son love each other very much, and despite Baba-jan reassuring Adel that he would sacrifice all that they have for Adel, Adel still longs for his father to be around more.

Inside their home, Adel watches as Kabir turns away the old man and boy from their door. They had walked all this way to Sahib's home wanting to speak with him. They vow to wait by the road until he returns. Adel is intrigued, wondering what they want. Kabir admits that Sahib will probably help them, but he calls these people “buzzards.”. He urges Adel not to “fall for their act. They'd pick [his] father clean if they could” (250).

We learn that Adel has half-brothers and a stepmother in Jalalabad. He enjoys visiting them, as his brothers and he get along really well. Adel is bored in "The boredom...in Shadbagh.  was crushing Adel" (251). He and his mother are “each other's reprieve,”, working on puzzles or building toothpick houses (252). In a flashback, his mother tells him of how she became engaged to her father (he was supposed to marry her sister) but she was serving tea while he was over talking with her parents about marrying her sister. The deal was made. Adel asks her if she regrets marrying him, and she points to their luxury and to Adel himself, and she says, “what's to regret?” (253).

Adel goes for a walk outside the compound alone and the stump of a great oak tree is there. Baba-jan said, “whoever had cut it down had been nothing but a fool” (254). Adel comes across the young boy, Gholam, who was with the old man; he was seeking shelter by a shed. They argue over soccer players, introduce themselves to each other, and Adel challenges him to a shoot-out. Gholam loses badly, and has a foul mouth, but Adel enjoys this, musing that he has not spent any time with anyone his own age in two years.

Gholam tells Adel he was born and raised in a refugee camp in Pakistan with his maternal grandmother Parwana, his father Iqbal, and his younger brothers. His half-uncle in America, Abdullah, sends money, and it helps. They were eventually kicked out of the refugee camp, and told to go back to Afghanistan. They live in the open field over by the windmill in a tent.

Adel confesses to Gholam that the reason they left Kabul and moved to Shadbagh was because someone had tried to kill them. Gholam and Adel discuss the enemies that his father has and then have another rematch. Adel bets his prized Zidane soccer jersey and is hustled, losing it to Gholam. Gholam says they may rematch for it tomorrow.

After a few days, Gholam returns and gives Adel his jersey back. They eat fruit from Adel's father's orchard and share Fanta. They begin to meet like this every day.

Gholam tells the story about the old oak tree, that if you whispered your wish and it would grant it, it would drop exactly ten leaves on your head. Gholam says his grandfather Saboor cut it down. When Adel feels angered that Gholam's grandfather cut down “their tree,”, Gholam proceeds to paint a different picture of Adel's father. The land their compound is on belonged to Gholam's family for generations, and Baba-jan bulldozed all of the homes down for his compound and orchards. He also tells Adel that his father is not “farming cotton.”. When Adel sees Gholam again, Gholam says the documents his father had that proved he owned the land where Adel’s house is on had conveniently been burned, and the judge has a new gold watch.

The evening Baba-jan returns, he has a dinner party. While eating and telling stories of his Jihadi days, there are rocks thrownsomeone throws rocks through windows. Sahib opens the front door to see the old man standing there with rocks in his hands. Baba-jan orders Adel's mother to take Adel upstairs. She agrees, and although she tells Adel his father will “reason” with the man, Adel knows something worse will happen.

Because of all of these events, Adel had changed.changes:  “On the surface... [it looked like he had fallen] back into a normal rhythm...Gholam may have cracked a door open to him, but it was Baba-jan who had pushed him through it” (274). Despite his new distaste for the new truth in his life, Adel also knowsew he willould adapt to it, like his mother did:.

"Adel could not run from his life any more than Gholam could from his. People learned to live with the most unimaginable things. As would he. This was his life. This was his mother. This was his father. And this was him, even if he hadn't always known it" (276).