The Swallows of Kabul by Algerian author Yasmina Khadra* is about Afghanistan under the Taliban regime. Before twenty pages, it caused me to disgust all countries ruled by religion. When I finished it, I was depressed. It is a powerful book, but if you are a sensitive person like me, I am sure it will affect and upset you in the same way.
The Swallows of Kabul is about how oppressive regimes dehumanize people. Kabul is killing the people living in it day by day with its collapsed walls, unhappiness, poverty and hot air. As if this was not enough, the Taliban prohibited all kinds of pleasures and brought the shariah. In such an environment, we listen to the lives of two different couples. On the one hand, we see daily life (if we can call it life); on the other hand, we observe how the characters change.
I found myself hating the world while reading the book. It is not difficult to see that what happened in Afghanistan is much worse than what is described in this book. Now I will have to learn how to live with this pain. I will read a lot of children’s books and watch videos of cats. If you read it, I suggest the same to you.
* Yasmina Khadra’s real name is Mohammed Moulessehoul. Stating that he chose a female name to escape military censorship, the author revealed his original identity while in exile in France.
The Swallows of Kabul
Since the ascendancy of the Taliban the lives of Mosheen and his beautiful wife, Zunaira, have been gradually destroy. Mosheen’s dream of becoming a diplomat has been shatter and Zunaira can no longer even appear on the streets of Kabul unveiled. Atiq is a jailer who guards those who have been condemn to death; the darkness of prison and the wretchedness of his job have seeped into his soul. Atiq’s wife, Musarrat, is suffering from an illness no doctor can cure. Yet, the lives of these four people are about to become inexplicably intertwined, through death and imprisonment to passion and extraordinary self-sacrifice.
The Swallows of Kabul is an astounding and elegiac novel of four people struggling to hold on to their humanity in a place where pleasure is a deadly sin and death has become routine.
Yasmina Khadra
Mohammed Moulessehoul, better know by the pen name Yasmina Khadra, is an Algerian author who writes in French and Arabic.
Reading this book contributed to these challenges:
