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.
The Sirens of Baghdad published in May 2007 is another notable book by Khadra. He won the Grand prix de Littirature by the French Academy in 2011.
He lives in Aix-en-Provence France.
Yasmina Khadra's website
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