Yasmina Khadra
Author of The Swallows of Kabul
About the Author
Disambiguation Notice:
a.k.a. Mohammed Moulessehoul (Moulesschoud)
(fre) a.k.a. Mohammed Moulessehoul (Moulesschoud)
Image credit: Yasmina Khadra en 2019
Series
Works by Yasmina Khadra
Le quatuor algérien : La part du mort ; Morituri ; Double blanc ; L'automne des chimères (2008) 22 copies
Los virtuosos 2 copies
Tilræðið 1 copy
2006 1 copy
Günün Geceye Borcu 1 copy
Ausencia 1 copy
Associated Works
African Rhapsody: Short Stories of the Contemporary African Experience (1994) — Contributor — 16 copies
Tagged
Common Knowledge
- Legal name
- Moulessehoul, Mohammed
- Other names
- ياسمينة خضراء
- Birthdate
- 1955-01-10
- Gender
- male
- Nationality
- Algeria
- Birthplace
- Kenadsa, Wilaya de Béchar, Sahara, Algeria
- Places of residence
- France
Algeria - Education
- Ecole des cadets de la Révolution d'El Mechouar, Tlemce, Algérie (19 64 | 19 78)
- Occupations
- army officer
novelist - Organizations
- Algerian Army
- Short biography
- Yasmina Khadra, révèle dans un entretien au Monde des Livres que sous cette identité féminine se cache un homme. Dans L'écrivain, paru en 2001, le mystère est entièrement dissipé. Yasmina Khadra s'appelle de son vrai nom Mohamed Moulessehoul, qui a déjà publié sous ce nom nouvelles et romans en Algérie. Officier dans l'armée algérienne, il a participé à la guerre contre le terrorisme. Il a quitté l'institution en 2000, avec le grade de commandant, pour se consacrer à sa vocation: écrire. Il choisit de le faire en français. Morituri le révèle au grand public. Aujourd'hui écrivain internationalement connu, Yasmina Khadra est traduit en 33 langues.
Les indications suivantes nous ont été fournies par Yasmina Khadra. Nous les transcrivons telles quelles.
10 janvier 1955 : naissance à Kenadsa (Sahara algérien) d'un père infirmier et d'une mère nomade.
1956 : mon père rejoint les rangs de l'ALN. Blessé en 1958. Devient officier de l'ALN en 1959
Septembre 1964 : j'avais neuf ans, mon père me confie à une école militaire (Ecole Nationale des Cadets de la Révolution, pour faire de moi un officier
1973 : je termine mon premier recueil de nouvelles "Houria" qui paraîtra onze ans plus tard
Septembre 1975 : je pars à l'Académie Militaire Inter-armes de Cherchell, que je quitte en 1978 avec le grade de sous-lieutenant. Je rejoins les unités de combat sur le front ouest
Septembre 2000 : près trente six ans de vie militaire, je quitte l'Armée pour me consacrer à la littérature (Je pars à la retraite avec le grade de commandant).
En 2001, après un court séjour au Mexique, avec ma femme et mes trois enfants, je viens m'installer en France, à Aix-en-Provence, où je réside encore.
Ces éléments de biographie se retrouvent dans deux des ouvrages de Yasmina Khadra : L'écrivain (où il évoque son séjour à l'Ecole Nationale des Cadets et l'éveil de sa vocation d'écrivain) et L'imposture des mots, davantage consacré à une justification de sa démarche et de son oeuvre, après la révélation de la véritable identité de Yasmina Khadra. - Disambiguation notice
- a.k.a. Mohammed Moulessehoul (Moulesschoud)
Members
Reviews
The Attack by Yasmina Khadra
Interesting.
Except for his wife's, Atiq hasn't seen a woman's face for many years. He's even learned to live without such sights. For him, woman are only ghosts, voiceless, charmless ghosts that pass practically unnoticed along the streets; flocks of infirm swallows—blue, yellow, often faded, several seasons behind—that make a mournful sound when they come into the proximity of men.
Yasmina Khadra is the pseudonym for Mohammed Moulessehoul, an Algerian army officer who writes about issues of fundamentalism and Islam. In [The Swallows of Kabul], he follows two couples in Kabul, Afghanistan over the period of a week or so. Atiq Shaukat is a jailor of woman who have been condemned of arbitrary crimes and sentenced to be executed the next day. His wife, Musarrat, is dying of an unnamed illness. Mohsen Ramat is a former professional, now destitute and unmoored, whose only remaining point of reference is his wife, the beautiful former magistrate, Zunaira. The Taliban overshadows all, dictating their public lives, and insidiously invading their personal relationships and inner selves. A damning condemnation of life under the Taliban made more poignant now that the Taliban is back in control after a period of personal freedom.… (more)
Yasmina Khadra is the pseudonym for Mohammed Moulessehoul, an Algerian army officer who writes about issues of fundamentalism and Islam. In [The Swallows of Kabul], he follows two couples in Kabul, Afghanistan over the period of a week or so. Atiq Shaukat is a jailor of woman who have been condemned of arbitrary crimes and sentenced to be executed the next day. His wife, Musarrat, is dying of an unnamed illness. Mohsen Ramat is a former professional, now destitute and unmoored, whose only remaining point of reference is his wife, the beautiful former magistrate, Zunaira. The Taliban overshadows all, dictating their public lives, and insidiously invading their personal relationships and inner selves. A damning condemnation of life under the Taliban made more poignant now that the Taliban is back in control after a period of personal freedom.… (more)
Along with Swallows of Kabul and The Attack, this forms a trilogy of short novels dealing with two important themes. First, there is the destruction, physical and otherwise, caused by Islamic extremism. But at the same time, the author presents a strongly critical view of the Western/Israeli response to same-- in his view, equally destructive.
Great Look at a Nation Gone Wrong
The author, Khadra, an Algerian man, offers wonderful insight into human nature and human thinking. The characters in "The Swallows of Kabul" seem real in their suffering and in their desires. The book focuses on Kabul during the Taliban rule. The descriptions of life there ring true in my mind. The characters, like the country, lose their humanity, although none of them are exactly cruel or evil. They are simply forced by their circumstances and beliefs into the actions that end the book.… (more)
The author, Khadra, an Algerian man, offers wonderful insight into human nature and human thinking. The characters in "The Swallows of Kabul" seem real in their suffering and in their desires. The book focuses on Kabul during the Taliban rule. The descriptions of life there ring true in my mind. The characters, like the country, lose their humanity, although none of them are exactly cruel or evil. They are simply forced by their circumstances and beliefs into the actions that end the book.… (more)
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Awards
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Associated Authors
Statistics
- Works
- 41
- Also by
- 3
- Members
- 4,425
- Popularity
- #5,662
- Rating
- 3.6
- Reviews
- 262
- ISBNs
- 363
- Languages
- 24
- Favorited
- 6
- Touchstones
- 169
