The Photographer

#1034
Title: The Photographer
Author:  Emmanuel Guibert, Didier Lefèvre, & Fréderic Lemercier
Publisher: First Second
Year: 2003/2009
288 pages

An excellent use of pastiche, with many very wordy pages broken up through the use of both photos and photo-based illustrations. The narrative was engaging and the images really brought it to life. A great addition to your graphic memoirs/non-fiction shelf.

And the Mountains Echoed

#1012
Title: And the Mountains Echoed
Author: Khaled Hosseini
Publisher: Riverhead
Year: 2013
Country: Afghanistan
404 page

I enjoyed this, though less than Hosseini's previous novels. I appreciated the particular stories set into a sprawling historical and interpersonal context, and in particular the pathos of relationships that can never be repaired or resolved.

The audiobook was challenging, with three readers (why?) with heavy accents. I could understand them with a certain amount of backtracking, but it was more work than normal. I read the book only because a relative wanted to listen to it with me, but she was unable to manage the accents and quickly gave up. I can't speak for the other readers, but Hosseini seems to have heightened his accent to read this, which was unnecessary and decreased the audiobook's accessibility.