num_pages: 195
description: Set in Kabul under the rule of the Taliban, this extraordinary novel takes readers into the lives of two couples. Mohsen comes from a family of wealthy shopkeepers whom the Taliban has destroyed; and Zunaira, his beautiful wife, once a brilliant teacher, is now no longer allowed to leave her home without an escort or covering her face. Intersecting their world is Atiq, a prison keeper, a man who has sincerely adopted the Taliban ideology and struggles to keep his faith, and his wife, Musarrat, who once rescued Atiq and is now dying of sickness and despair.Desperate, exhausted Mohsen wanders through Kabul when he is surrounded by a crowd about to stone an adulterous woman. Numbed by the hysterical atmosphere and drawn into their rage, he too throws stones at the face of the condemned woman buried up to her waist. With this gesture the lives of all four protagonists move toward their destinies.The Swallows of Kabul is a dazzling novel written with compassion and exquisite detail by one of the most lucid writers about the mentality of Islamic fundamentalists and the complexities of the Muslim world. Yasmina Khadra brings readers into the hot, dusty streets of Kabul and offers them an unflinching but compassionate insight into a society that violence and hypocrisy have brought to the edge of despair.
language: English
title: The Swallows of Kabul: A Novel
titlecomplete: The Swallows of Kabul: A Novel
characters: Atiq, Musin, Zunaira, Musarrat
genres: Literary Fiction, France, Fiction, Asia, Contemporary, Historical Fiction, War, Historical, Novels, Algeria
ratings_count: 9962
places: Kabul
awards: awardedAt: 1041408000000
name: Prix des Libraires algériens, awardedAt: 1136102400000
name: Dublin Literary Award
publisher: Nan A. Talese