The Swallows of Kabul by Yasmina Khadra (Book Analysis): Detailed Summary, Analysis and Reading Guide

By Bright Summaries

Unlock the more straightforward side of The Swallows of Kabul with this concise and insightful summary and analysis!

This engaging summary presents an analysis of The Swallows of Kabul by Yasmina Khadra, a haunting tale of two couples living under the yoke of the Taliban in Kabul. As they are beset by illness, oppression, loss and terror, their lives gradually become intertwined, and a glimmer of hope filters through the darkness even as despair threatens to consume them all. Yasmina Khadra is the pen-name of Mohammed Moulessehoul, a former officer in the Algerian army who retired to France to pursue an award-winning literary career.

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This in-depth and informative reading guide brings you:
• A complete plot summary
• Character studies
• Key themes and symbols
• Questions for further reflection

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• Language: English
• Publisher: BrightSummaries.com
• Release date: Nov 3, 2017
• ISBN: 9782808004381

Book preview

Algerian writer

Born in Kenadsa (Algerian Sahara) in 1955.

Notable works:

The Attack (2005), novel

What the Day Owes the Night (2008), novel

The Dictator’s Last Night (2015), novel

Yasmina Khadra is the pseudonym of Mohammed Moulessehoul, who created the pen-name using his wife’s two forenames. His father was a nurse who worked with the ALN (National Liberation Army of Algeria) and his mother was a nomad. Khadra was born in 1955 and studied at a military academy before embarking on a military career that spanned 36 years, during which he reached the rank of major.

After initially publishing under his own name, he began using pseudonyms from 1989 onwards and eventually left the army in 2000 in order to devote himself to his career as a writer. In 1997 he published Morituri, the first novel in his series centred on the Police Superintendant Brahim Llob, under the pseudonym Yasmina Khadra, which brought him to widespread public attention. After a short stay in Mexico with his wife and three children, he settled in Aix-en-Provence in France in 2001, and still lives there today.

He has received many literary awards during his career, in particular for The Swallows of Kabul, which was awarded the Prix du salon littéraire de Metz and the Prix des libraires algériens in 2003, was voted best book of the year by two American newspapers (the San Francisco Chronicle and the Christian Science Monitor) in 2005, and was shortlisted