The Sirens of Baghdad

A strikingly powerful novel exploring the motivations of a suicide bomber in Iraq. By the IMPAC shortlisted author of The Swallows of Kabul and The Attack.

Expertly evokes an urban atmosphere of paranoia and random destruction

Remarkable...horrifying and genuinely illuminating...essential reading for anyone who wants to understand Iraq, but also an incredibly powerful piece of fiction

Intoxicating, utterly thrilling. It is not an apology for terrorism, but a provocative explanation that will bring the Iraqi experience in terrifying detail to western bedside tables

Khadra draws the moods and motives of his village lad-turned-apprentice jihadi with engrossing power... lets you taste the sand, dust and blood - and most of all, the despair... In his own unsettling way, Yasmina Khadra offers the kind of truth that only well-wrought fiction tells

One of the most important books to be published in Europe this year

Yasmina Khadra is the nom de plume of the Algerian army officer, Mohammed Moulessehoul, who took a female pseudonym to avoid submitting his manuscripts for approval by the army. He is the author of four other books published in English, including the acclaimed bestseller Swallows of Kabul. He lives in France.

Forced to leave the University of Baghdad when the Americans invade Iraq, a young man returns home to his small desert village, where he witnesses three unspeakable acts of violence committed by American soldiers. Consumed by a desire for revenge, the youth returns to the city where is he is taken in by a radical group. Before long, he finds himself part of a terrorist operation which will take him to London. But as the time to board the plane draws near, he struggles to reconcile himself to his mission.

The Attack

A strikingly powerful novel exploring the motivations of a suicide bomber in Israel, told through the eyes of her husband. 
 
Now an award-winning film, winner of the Frankfurt Book Fair prize for best literary film adaptation.

A moving, often troubling exploration of faith, self-belief and identity... The writing has a rare courage. This is a novel from a skilled storyteller working at the height of his powers

Khadra has an easy-going style, and tailors his discussions of the Arab-Israeli conflict to the form of a thriller. The fuse lit at the beginning of the novel crackles through the story to its clever destination

Khadra is a passionately moral writer, but he rarely sits in judgement... A magnificent novel, believable and moving

The characters are not mere mouthpieces - above all else, this is a novel about a man who feels himself betrayed. Amin Jaafie's very human drama is the heart of this thoughtful and affecting work

Probably Khadra's most ambitious novel to date...[the] power is in the lucidity and the intelligence of the terrorists Amin despises

Tel Aviv. A suicide bomber has killed 19 in a packed city centre restaurant. Dr Amin Jaafie, an Israeli Arab, is a surgeon at a nearby hospital. Respected and admired by his colleagues, the doctor represents integration at its most successful. But this night of turmoil and death takes a horrifyingly personal turn as his beloved wife's body is found among the dead... could she have caused the devestation? 
 
From the graphic, shocking description of the bombing that opens the novel to its searing conclusion, The Attack portrays the reality of terrorism and its costs. Intense and humane, thoughtful, sensitive and heartfelt, it displays a profound understanding of that which can seem incomprehensible.

The Swallows Of Kabul

A powerful story about four Kabul civilians drawn together by their daily struggles in life under the Taliban.

A stiflingly powerful evocation of a country in which war has found a homeland

Inspiring... Evokes the feeling of a nation's collective suffocation

Harrowing... Remarkable... Khadra's simple, elegant prose, finely drawn characters and chilling insights prepare the way for the terrible climax... A superb meditation on the fate of the Afghan people

Intense, elegant, despairing prose...deeply affecting

A transcendentally harmonious and compassionate work

A surprisingly tender book... Amid the terror a classic story about love sneaks through: love lost, love imagined, love morphed into madness

Beautifully written... It puts a human face on the suffering inflicted by the Taliban... Disturbing and mesmerizing, The Swallows of Kabul will stay with you long after you've finished it

Riveting... Spare, taut, and pristinely clear prose... An uncanny knack for making moral tension palpable... Extraordinarily moving

A novel very much in the tradition of Albert Camus, not only in its humanism and concern with the consequences of individual choices but also in its determination to bear witness to the absurdities of daily life... [A] chilling portrait of fundamentalism run amok and its fallout on ordinary people

Yasmina Khadra is the nom de plume of the Algerian army officer, Mohammed Moulessehoul, who took a female pseudonym to avoid submitting his manuscripts for approval by the army. He is the author of four other books published in English, including the acclaimed bestseller Swallows of Kabul. He lives in France.

Since the ascendancy of the Taliban the lives of Mosheen and his beautiful wife, Zunaira, have been gradually destroyed. Mosheen's dream of becoming a diplomat has been shattered and Zunaira can no longer even appear on the streets of Kabul unveiled. Atiq is a jailer who guards those who have been condemned to death; the darkness of prison and the wretchedness of his job have seeped into his soul. Atiq's wife, Musarrat, is suffering from an illness no doctor can cure. Yet, the lives of these four people are about to become inexplicably intertwined, through death and imprisonment to passion and extraordinary self-sacrifice. 
 
The Swallows of Kabul is an astounding and elegiac novel of four people struggling to hold on to their humanity in a place where pleasure is a deadly sin and death has become routine.

Yasmina Khadra

A book in which you  may lose yourself in reading and find yourself when you put it aside; an enriching work... sympathetic and humane.  The narrative is compelling and there is a rich cast of well observed, or remembered, characters... He presents life as it is, and hints at what it might be

This tale of family, love and war unfolds in Algeria before and during the armed revolt that led to independence.  Caught between two worlds, its hero, Younes, is a sympathetic witness to the doctrines that divide people, and to the passions that may reunite them

Includes brilliant descriptions of the city's slums and the beauties of the countryside

Moving... This story is about the power of the individual to stand up to history

Khadra's novel, set almost entirely in Algeria, has wonderful lyrical passages and is distinguished by its sympathetic intelligence...Khadra writes with a beautiful lucidity

Once a counter-terrorism officer in Algeria, now a French-based writer of sophisticated political thrillers under a pseudonym, "Yasmina Khadra" here returns home, and digs further into the roots of violence.... Rich in incident and character (and ably translated by Frank Wynne), the novel shows us from within the colonised Algeria that Camus - as he acknowledged - could only glimpse an outsider.

'Darling, this is Younes. Yesterday he was my nephew, today he is our son'. 
 
Younes' life is changed forever when his poverty-stricken parents surrender him to the care of his more affluent uncle. Re-named Jonas, he grows up in a colourful colonial Algerian town, and forges a unique friendship with a group of boys, an enduring bond that nothing - not even the Algerian Revolt - will shake. He meets Emilie - a beautiful, beguiling girl who captures the hearts of all who see her - and an epic love story is set in motion. 
 
Time and again Jonas is forced to to choose between two worlds: Algerian or European; past or present; love or loyalty, and finally decide if he will surrender to fate or take control of his own destiny at last. 
 
AN INTERNATIONAL BESTSELLER.

Yasmina Khadra

Praise for What the Day Owes the Night

A book in which you may lose yourself in reading and find yourself when you put it aside; an enriching work... sympathetic and humane. The narrative is compelling and there is a rich cast of well observed, or reme ...

This tale of family, love and war unfolds in Algeria before and during the armed revolt that led to independence. Caught between two worlds, its hero, Younes, is a sympathetic witness to the doctrines that divide p ...

Includes brilliant descriptions of the city's slums and the beauties of the countryside

A book in which you may lose yourself in reading and find yourself when you put it aside; an enriching work... sympathetic and humane. The narrative is compelling and there is a rich cast of well observed, or reme ...

This tale of family, love and war unfolds in Algeria before and during the armed revolt that led to independence. Caught between two worlds, its hero, Younes, is a sympathetic witness to the doctrines that divide p ...

Includes brilliant descriptions of the city's slums and the beauties of the countryside

A book in which you may lose yourself in reading and find yourself when you put it aside; an enriching work... sympathetic and humane. The narrative is compelling and there is a rich cast of well observed, or reme ...

This tale of family, love and war unfolds in Algeria before and during the armed revolt that led to independence. Caught between two worlds, its hero, Younes, is a sympathetic witness to the doctrines that divide p ...

Includes brilliant descriptions of the city's slums and the beauties of the countryside

Books by Yasmina Khadra

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