The swallows of Kabul

Resource Information

The work The swallows of Kabul represents a distinct intellectual or artistic creation found in Austin Public Library. This resource is a combination of several types including: Work, Language Material, Books.

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Label

The swallows of Kabul

Statement of responsibility

Yasmina Khadra ; translated from the French by John Cullen

Creator

• trueKhadra, Yasmina

Contributor

• Cullen, John, 1942-

Subject

• Kabul (Afghanistan) -- Fiction
• Fiction
• French fiction -- Translations into English
• trueFundamentalists
• trueIslam
• trueKabul, Afghanistan
• trueLife change events
• trueMarried people
• trueMuslims
• truePrison guards
• Psychological fiction
• Psychological fiction
• trueState-sponsored terrorism -- Afghanistan
• trueViolence
• trueWomen prisoners -- Afghanistan
• Afghanistan -- Kabul
• trueAfghanistan -- Social conditions
• trueDeath
• trueExtramarital affairs

Genre

• French fiction
• Fiction
• Psychological fiction

Language

• eng
• fre
• eng

Summary

Set in Kabul under the rule of the Taliban, this extraordinary novel takes readers into the lives of two couples: Mohsen, who comes from a family of wealthy shopkeepers whom the Taliban has destroyed; Zunaira, his wife, exceedingly beautiful, who was once a brilliant teacher and 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

Member of

• Hirondelles de Kaboul

Storyline

• trueOwn voices

Tone

• trueBleak
• trueHeartwrenching
• trueMenacing

Writing style

• trueSpare

Character

• trueReligiously diverse
• trueCulturally diverse
• trueAuthentic

Award

• ALA Notable Book, 2005.
• Booklist Editors' Choice, 2004.

Cataloging source

DLC

Dewey number

843/.92

Index

no index present

Literary form

fiction