Picture of author.

Yasmina Khadra

Author of The Swallows of Kabul

41+ Works 4,425 Members 262 Reviews 6 Favorited

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

The Swallows of Kabul (2002) 1,287 copies
The Attack (2005) 1,103 copies
The Sirens of Baghdad (2006) 428 copies
What the Day Owes the Night (2008) 367 copies
Wolf Dreams (2003) 169 copies
The African Equation (2011) 107 copies
Morituri (1997) 106 copies
In the Name of God (1998) 90 copies
The Dictator's Last Night (2015) — Author — 90 copies
Dead Man's Share (2009) 73 copies
The Angels Die (2013) 66 copies
L'Ecrivain (2001) 63 copies
Autumn of the Phantoms (1998) 52 copies
L'olympe des infortunes (2010) 49 copies
Double Blank (1997) 49 copies

Associated Works

The Anchor Book of Modern African Stories (2002) — Contributor — 51 copies
The Attack (1985) — Auteur adapté — 4 copies

Tagged

2007 (18) 2008 (17) 20th century (21) Afghanistan (165) Africa (39) Algeria (162) Algerian literature (34) Algerien (21) contemporary fiction (18) fiction (366) France (19) French (54) French literature (41) historical fiction (22) Iraq (21) Islam (53) Israel (76) Kabul (24) library (14) Literatura francoargelina (18) literature (59) Middle East (86) mystery (20) narrativa (16) novel (74) Palestine (46) policier (16) politics (15) read (25) religion (20) Roman (100) short stories (14) Taliban (65) terrorism (86) to-read (151) translation (18) unread (20) war (48) wishlist (16) women (16)

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

Interesting.
 
Flagged
Kiramke | 59 other reviews | Jun 27, 2023 |
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)
 
Flagged
labfs39 | 68 other reviews | Jun 27, 2022 |
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.
 
Flagged
kwhafar | 18 other reviews | Aug 22, 2021 |
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)
 
Flagged
mvblair | 68 other reviews | Aug 9, 2020 |

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Associated Authors

Lotta Toivanen Translator
John Cullen Translator
Marco Bellini Translator, B
Regina Keil-Sagawe Übersetzer, Translator
Hans Peter Lund Translator
Brigette Friedrich Photographer
Michael J. Windsor Cover designer
Ragna Essén Translator
Paolo Pellegrin Photographer
Aubrey Botsford Translator
Linda Black Translator
George Marks Umschlagfoto
Frank Wynne Translator
Floor Borsboom Translator
Bernd Ziermann Übersetzer
Joan C. Martí Translator
David Herman Translator
Maurizio Ferrara Translator
Howard Curtis Translator
Joan C. Martí Translator

Statistics

Works
41
Also by
3
Members
4,425
Popularity
#5,662
Rating
½ 3.6
Reviews
262
ISBNs
363
Languages
24
Favorited
6
Touchstones
169

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