The Swallows of Kabul - Yasmina Khadra

An astounding tale of love and sacrifice in the horrific and inhumane Taliban regime.

How do you survive in a world where you can be beaten up for laughing with your husband? What kind of life can you live when everything has been taken away from you? Where the Taliban rule, love between a man and a woman, joy, music, freedom have been banned, replaced by violence and hatred, all in the name of God.

Mosheen and Zunaira had everything going for them before. He was going to become a diplomat, she was a magistrate, they came from wealthy families and married young. They've lost everything: their parents are dead, their house destroyed, Zunaira is not allowed to work and has to wear the hated burkha to go out.

Atiq, a Russian war veteran, now works part-time as a prison jailer. His wife Musarrat is dying of an unknown illness. He is drained by his love and pain for her, her efforts to please him, her slow agony.

All around them are men with certainties, ready to lapidate a woman or divorce a dying wife. This harsh world is driving the two couples mad.

One day, Mosheen convinces Zunaira to go out with him. At first she resists him. Then she gives way. This outing and its disastrous consequences entwine the fates of the two couples. It is the affirmation of love and sacrifice against the prevailing inhumanity.

Yasmina Khadra, himself Algerian, masterfully conjures up the horror of the Taliban regime, the stifling atmosphere, the lack of freedom imposed by a number of God-crazy men on a whole population reduced to abject fear.

Yasmina Khadra's first books were thrillers set in today's Algeria, wrecked by civil war, in which more than 50 000 people were killed after the fundamentalist religious party who had won the election was barred from power by a military coup. Putting an end to various rumours around the author's true identity, Mohammed Moulessehoul, an Algerian army officer, revealed he had written these books in 2000. Two of his thrillers have been published in English, 'In the Name of God' and 'Wolf Dreams'. He now lives in France.

Author: Yasmina Khadra
Publisher: Random House Australia
ISBN: 0099466023
RRP: $23.95