Yasmina Khadra Biography
Yasmina Khadra is the pseudonym of the former Algerian army officer
Mohammed Moulessehoul.
Moulessehoul, an officer in the Algerian army, adopted a woman's
pseudonym to avoid military censorship. Despite the publication of many
successful novels in Algeria, Moulessehoul only revealed his true
identity in 2001 after leaving the army and going into exile and
seclusion in France. Anonymity was the only way for him to survive and
avoid censorship during the Algerian Civil War. In 2004, Newsweek
acclaimed him as "one of the rare writers capable of giving a meaning
to the violence in Algeria today."
His novel set in Afghanistan under the Taliban, The Swallows of
Kabul was
shortlisted for the 2006 International IMPAC Dublin Literary Award. The
Attack won the Prix des
libraires in 2006, a prize chosen by about five thousand bookstores in
France, Belgium, Switzerland, and Canada.
In an interview with the German radio SWR1 in 2006, Moulessehoul
said: "The West interprets the world as he likes it. He develops
certain theories that fit into its world outlook, but do not always
represent the reality. Being a muslim, I suggest a new perspective on
Afghanistan, on the religious fanatism and the, how I call it -
religiopathy. My novel, the The Swallows of Kabul gives the readers in the West a chance, to understand the core of a problem, that he usually only touches on the surface. Because the fanatism is a threat for all, I contribute to the understanding of the causes and
backgrounds. Perhaps then it will be possible to find a way to bring it
under control."
His newest book, The Sirens of
Baghdad, published in May 2007. He lives in
Aix-en-Provence France.
This biography was last updated on 07/06/2010.
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