The Swallows of Kabul

by Yasmina Khadra

Paperback, 2005

Status

Available

Description

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.… (more)

User reviews

LibraryThing member wildbill
This book is a 180 degree change of pace for me. It is the story of two couples, Atiq Shaukat and his wife Musarrat and Moshen Ramat and his wife Zunaira set in Kabul under the rule of the Taliban.
The setting is so foreign it could be science fiction. The poverty and misery of existence between the
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covers of this book is appalling. Moshen and Zunaira had good jobs and were respected educated people before the Russians invaded and the world turned upside down. Now we watch as their inner lives become distorted and destroyed.
Atiq is a jailer. He fought as a muhjadeen and after being wounded in the war was nursed for months by Musarrat who he then married. They were not able to have children and now she is dying from a disease that is beyond the skill of the doctors available. His soul is in constant torment and only she who truly loves him can see it.
The book is a depiction of misery and tragedy equal to the ancient Greeks. Everyone suffers in a primitive world run by the Taliban who are barely human and abuse everyone in the name of God.
There are brief moments of beauty such as Atiq watching the moon and remembering his father tell him where it came from.
Those brief moments only emphasize the bare, hot and dusty world that everyone moves in. To describe the story would give it away. Suffice it to say that the book ends in tragedy piled on tragedy until there is nothing.
It is not an uplifting book but this is life as it is lived by people I will never know. The people in the camps stayed alive so that there would be a memory of what happened. This book is that type of memory and it should be read if only to acknowledge how circumstances beyond our control can inflict ghastly misery on life's innocents.
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LibraryThing member jessicawest
The first thing that I noticed about this book was before I even began reading it. It was originally written in French, translated by John Cullen. And the woman's name Yasmina is actually a pseudonym for an Algerian army officer. He used the name Yasmina Khadra so that he would not have to submit
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his work to army censors while he was still in the army. Knowing who the author of a book is is not always important when you're reading a book, but I found this detail intriguing.
The Swallows of Kabul is a story about two couples in Kabul under the rule of the Taliban. The book begins with an execution, another death that has almost no effect on anyone, as death has become so normal. War is the normality, and the Taliban has taken such control over everyone's lives that Mohsen, one of the main characters, has to convince himself that it was not always this way. He remembers being able to laugh in public, entertaining guests with his family, being happy. But he has not experienced these things in so long, they seem like the swallows of the title - they have fled with the arrival of war.
This book is a quick read. The almost 200 pages fly by. Yet it is not easy to read. It is tragic, the way the main characters' lives are torn apart by the week or so the story covers. In a sense, this is a book that mourns for all of the things that were lost because of the wars Afghanistan has endured: beauty, freedom, the ability to love, Kabul itself. It is a eulogy.
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LibraryThing member PaintedFinches
The Swallows of Kabul is a story illustrating Afghan life in Kabul under the Taliban. Following two couples, we are led through the streets of Kabul to witness poverty, overpopulation and the horrors of everyday life. Yet, amid all the hopelessness, Yasmina Khadra is able to tell the story of these
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people so beautifully and with gorgeous, poetic prose.

At its essence, this is a story about love and the strength of women. Love is a thing that is universal, yet incredibly varied. These husbands and wives love each other in an entirely different way than American couples love each other. I believe this story shows the validity in this alternate kind of love that is so foreign to Americans.

The women are clearly the group who suffers the most injustice under the Taliban in Kabul, but it was the men in this story who were falling apart. Despite their misfortunes, the women showed incredible strength, both in different ways. I found this to be empowering and it gave me hope that all spirits in Afghanistan are not and will not be broken. Strength and bravery are important characteristics for the future of Afghanistan.

Overall, I would rate this book a 4/5 and I highly recommended it to anyone looking for a fast, beautiful and thought-provoking read.
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LibraryThing member Niecierpek
The book was written by an Algerian officer under a pseudonym, which is in fact his wife’s name, so that his writing would not be censored by authorities.

The story is set in Kabul during the Taliban era, and tells the story of a few people whose fates unexpectedly cross through the execution of
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a woman who is publicly stoned for adultery.

The action moved fast and it was interesting and written with a passion for issues and characters. It was easy to see the insanity of Taliban and the despair and hopelessness to which they led the Afghani people.

Still, there were a few things that I felt were weak, or simply not to my taste. The first thing I did not like was the almost Gothic Romance convention it was written in. Then, the ideas were very openly laid out, so that you wouldn’t miss anything- there was no subtlety in the writing. And the style was another problem. The dialog sounded artificial and the sentences went from really poetic to choppy for no apparent reason. That may be the translator’s fault though, and not the author’s at all.

In the end I felt disappointed as it did not fulfill my expectations. Especially that it sucked me right in at the beginning. It wasn’t a bad book, but not my cup of tea perhaps.
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LibraryThing member deckla
A searing description of Kabul under Taliban rule—a disintegrating, debauched society reeling from the horrors of war. Public executions are commonplace. The swallows of Kabul are the women in their burqas. Amid the destruction are a handful of unforgettable characters caught in consequence.
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Their struggles and choices ultimately offer a kind of redemption in this bleak, beautifully realized parable, written with spare, eloquent sentences in the present tense.
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LibraryThing member moonbridge
A depressing look at life under the identity-stealing rule of the Taliban, this book tells in beautifully poetic prose the story of two couples' separate relationships, ending with a heartbreaking twist that seemed contrived to me. Good story, though, and great look at life under the Taliban if you
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can stand the grinding depression.
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LibraryThing member LynDH
What did I learn from this book? Life was brutal for women living in Afghanistan under Taliban rule and it wasn't much better for the men. Despair and gloom abound with no happy ending in sight. I would recommend this for anyone who is drawn to a book for its characters and language and it would be
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a great book for discussion.
Khadra is the nom de plume for Algerian army officer and the original novel was written in French. Makes me wonder what was lost in the translation - but not wonder enough to consider French lessons.
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LibraryThing member elbakerone
"Reality check" might be a phrase best used for describing a book like The Swallows of Kabul. Life in Afghanistan under the Taliban does not make for a pretty or happy story, but there is power and depth to the fictional account contained within its pages.

The novel follows two married couples and
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their strained relationships. Atiq is married to the ailing Musarrat. She once saved his life and his gratitude manifests itself in his devotion to her, despite others urging him to divorce her and turn her out to the streets. Meanwhile, the smart and beautiful Zunaira has her career and freedoms stripped from her under the Taliban law and her identity is now tied to her timid husband Moshen. A string of shocking but realistic events - influenced by political chaos and religious tensions - brings the two couples together and entwines their fates.

The setting of the novel inevitably draws comparisons to the works of Khaled Hosseini, yet Swallows of Kabul tells a unique and gripping story of its own. Obviously this was not an easy or lighthearted read, but fans of literature set in the middle east will appreciate the beautiful yet tragic story.
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LibraryThing member JGoto
*warning - spoilers* The blurb on the front cover of my edition of The Swallows of Kabul likens the novel to Hosseini's The Kite Runner. Not by a long shot! Hosseini's characters reach out to the reader and inspire their empathy. The reader feels their joys and sorrows and rejoices in their
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eventual redemption. The characters in The Swallows of Kabul have little depth, and the parts we do see are not very likeable. While Atiq's wife thinks he is suddenly and utterly transformed by his attraction to the prisoner Zunaira, he actually remains his self-absorbed and pessimistic self. He does not become a better (or changed) person at all. He is infatuated by Zunaira's beauty and tries to save her, yet at the same time ignores the sacrifice and suffering of his wife of twenty years. Musarrat's sacrifice - she will happily die in the place of Zunaira because her husband has finally found someone to love- is not realistic or believable.

Kite Runner paints a vivid portrait of present day Afghanistan. There is horror in the lives of its inhabitants, but they have not lost their humanity. In fact, they are admirable because they survive as humans despite the brutal Taliban rule. The picture painted in The Swallows of Kabul is quite different. It is gray and dreary, with no hope for anyone.

The Swallows of Kabul is a wordy and depressing book, with no satisfying resolution.
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LibraryThing member Mdshrk1
Not as good as "The Kite Runner," but still a compelling read.
LibraryThing member kellyn
Moshen and his wife Zunaira, are sensitive souls seemingly unable to adjust to the requirements of the Taliban regime. Moshen wanders the streets while Zunaira lives within the four walls of their apartment. Another Afghan family, Atiq and his wife Musarrat are also trying to adjust to the Taliban.
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Atiq, a prison keeper or guard has embraced the Taliban but over the course of the story comes to question some of the practices they implemented.

Khadra weaves a mesmerizing tale that moves to a painful, yet inevitable, conclusion. You know the end is going to be awful but you still must keep going. Khadra’s characters make confront untenable alternatives and must make unimaginable choices that break your heart.
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LibraryThing member BenjaminHahn
This was a Fall 2007 Book of the Year pick for UAA/APU here in Anchorage. The writing was poetic and fluffy. The subject matter was interesting but I read the Kite Runner only months before and that book seemed to hit these same themes, but in a much more believable and convincing way. Furthermore,
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the author is not from Afghanistan from what I can tell. He is from Algeria, and I think lives in France, which leads me to suspect that his motivation for writing about a story set in Afghanistan is circumspect. Not that a writer writing about Afghanistan is required to be from Afghanistan, but the intricacies of Kabul culture seem more authentic when you at least know that the author has visited.
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LibraryThing member kimallen-niesen
The Swallows of Kabul by Yasmina Khadra is a heart piercing book about two couples living under the Taliban in Kabul. In one chapter a husband begs his wife to go for a walk with him and she finally agrees, only to have a solider abuse her and physically force her husband to attend the mosque,
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leaving her to stand in the heat boiling under a burka. The helplessness of both of them to protect each other in the face of such random brutality haunts me. A second couple is struggling to survive her illness while the husband tries to succeed as a policeman in an arbitrary system. His work scenes contained the tension I feel when reading about working in royal courts where the king is a tyrant. The desperation of people trying to live under the radar in a Kabul ruled by the Taliban is gut wrenching.
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LibraryThing member stonelaura
This slim book, written by former Algerian soldier Mohammed Moulessehoul who began using a pseudonym to avoid censorship by the Algerian military, follows two married couples through several weeks in Taliban occupied Kabul. Mohsen and his beautiful wife Zunaira come from privileged families but
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have lost everything since Taliban rule -- including Mohsen’s independent wealth and Zunarira’s job as a lawyer fighting for women’s rights. Mohsen wanders the city in a daze of unemployment, feeling powerless and lost until the day he participates in the stoning of a condemned prostitute. When he confesses to Zunaira, who has hardly dared to leave their house, it sparks a dramatic change in their relationship, and ultimately their lives. Atiq, the brutish whip-carrying jailer and his ailing wife Musarrat are feeling their own relationship strains as Atiq tries to address his conflicts, in the face of Taliban rules, about love, responsibility and faith. Khadra focuses much of the story on the repressed and desperate lives of the women, revealing to the reader their stultifying life behind their burkas. The lives of both couples come crashing together in a very dramatic way that leaves the reader ready to discuss issues of religion, loyalty and, most profoundly, fundamentalist domination. The novel has a stark, existential feel to it, reminiscent of Camus’ The Stranger, and similarly deals with man’s inability to reconcile fate and free will. This dark story has a profound message that might be provide provocative discussion for book groups.
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LibraryThing member bhowell
This is a fabulous book. If you are interested in the historical event there are two other historical novels that I will list for you shortly both of which I have read and thoroughly enjoyed. Well it has been a year and a half but I am adding the other books. Try the Mulberry Empire by Philip
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Hensler and One Last Look by Susanna Moore.
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LibraryThing member sensitivemuse
This book did start off a little slow for me. I was patient with it though. It's not supposed to be something that's action packed and fast paced. It was slow, but the writing style is lyrical and poetic. The author really brings in the feeling of emptiness and despair of Kabul during this time
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period. I think the writing is extremely well done, it describes Kabul and its' people and you can feel what they feel. You can picture the hot climate and the dry desert almost accurately. This book is basically written for the reader to feel the emotions of the main characters but also to experience how it is to live there during that time.

The characters are all right. It's Atiq that really develops throughout this book. I liked Musarrat the most. She had this inner strength within her despite her health deteriorating and I admired her devotion and loyalty especially towards the end. I also pitied her the most as she had tried so hard to love Atiq and understand him. When she finally does though, it just seems too late. Which reinforces the feelings of sadness and despair which seems to be the main theme in this book.

Aside from the slow pace which sort of put me off, I couldn't help but continue reading. I wanted to know what happened to these four people. My heart went out to them because of what they had to live through and the eventual outcomes of their lives towards the end of the book. Don't expect any happy moments in this book (I can only think of one, and it didn't end so nicely). You find yourself immersed in this story because of the way it's beautifully written, and the emotions it can trigger while you're reading it.

Overall, although it's a short book, it might feel as if you've been drained of all emotion. Don't let that put you off of this book. It's written with a wonderful lyrical and poetical skill and with great detail to emotion and description that you'll feel as if you're actually there with the characters and going through their personal tragedies.
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LibraryThing member Cariola
Yasmina Khadra creates a detailed, grim, and unfortunately realistic picture of life in Afghanistan under the Taliban and of how their fanatic rule affected both society and individuals. At the story's center are two men and their wives. Atiq, a jailer devoted to the tenets of fundamentalist Islam,
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begins to feel uneasy when he can't find help--medical or domestic--for his terminally ill wife. The best advice he can get is to divorce her and free himself from any responsibility. Mohsen, a former intellectual whose wife once campaigned for women's rights, becomes swept up in a frenzied crowd and, much to his later horror, takes part in stoning a condemned prostitute. Both men begin to question the society in which they have blindly participated.

I previously read Khadra's The Attack and can say that while The Swallows of Kabul is a much better book, I don't find Khadra to be a particularly compelling writer. Still, he (Khadra is a man who writes under a female pseudonym) conveys well the tension of life in this brutal and unfamiliar world.
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LibraryThing member creighley
The arms of the Taliban and the consequences of its brutality and its effect on people is eloquently told in this very short novel. Powerful....Too short!
LibraryThing member TheBookJunky
Wow, great book. A chilling desolate prologue. Hints of tale of despair, yielding a spindled thin hope of overcoming. “Women mummified in shrouds the color of fever or fear, are utterly anonymous”.
LibraryThing member NisrinMB
Tragical but wonderfull..
LibraryThing member bookczuk
A book of utter desolation -- beautifully written, but heartwrenching in the world it depicts. (And U have no cause to believe it is an untrue view. Kabul, once a city of so much wonder, has been utterly changed since wars and political climate there changes.) You cannot read this book, and then
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pretend to be unaware of what happens when a fundamentalist view takes over ordinary people.

The story roughly follows the lives of two couples in Kabul: Moshen and Zunaira, once part of the educated middle class, and Atiq and Misarrat, the jailer and his dying wife. Stories of love and devotion, but not played out like a fairy tale.

The writing is stark in places, luminescent in others. Though the book is small, it took me longer to read, because I had to ruminate on certain passages. This was not a quick, easy read. Some parts were chilling in the brutishness, others made my soul sing. (An example of the latter, which rang true to me: "Music is the true breath of life. We eat so we won't starve to death. We sing so we can hear ourselves live." (p 84). And at another point "Basically, being alive means keeping yourself ready for the sky to fall in on you at any time." (p118)

Legend has it that the women of Afghanistan were the most beautiful and beguiling in the world, and that the burqa was instituted to protect men from being driven mad by that beauty.
I read somewhere that the title refers to the flocks of women in burqas.
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LibraryThing member PeskyLibrary
The Swallows of Kabul by Yasmina Khadra (a pen name for Mohammed Moulessehoul) is a tale of two couples, Mohsen and Zunaira and Atiq and Musarrat. Atiq works as a jailer, hardened by his experiences in the war against the Russians and his work. During the war, Musarrat saved his life, and in
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gratitude Atiq married her. Now she’s dying. Mohsen and Zunaira were part of the educated middle class before the Taliban takeover. Mohsen hasn’t found a place or purpose for himself, and, as a woman, Zunaira’s activities are restricted. The paths of these four people cross in a most unexpected manner, and almost everyone ends in ruin.
The story undulates between inaction and action, thought and speech, indifference and concern. Despair lingers over everything. Slow to start, the narration grows in intensity towards the feverish end. Short and quietly intense, this book will stay with you if you stay with it.
EJ 11/2011
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LibraryThing member MarieAlt
A depressing little novel, a little strange.
LibraryThing member BookConcierge
This short novel follows two couples in a Taliban-run Kabul. Mohsen comes from a family of wealthy shopkeepers; his wife, Zunaira, is a beautiful and brilliant teacher. The Taliban has destroyed their business and home, and Zunaira is no longer allowed to work. In contrast, we see Atiq, a jailer
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who has adopted the Taliban teachings, and his faithful and loving wife, Musarrat, who is dying of a debilitating illness.

Khadra writes with poetic detail about a city which the residents no longer recognize as their own. Frightened, confused, unsure, despairing, they struggle to make sense of a culture that is at once familiar and foreign:
“…hundreds of little kids … many barely old enough to walk, and all silently braiding the stout rope they’ll use, someday soon, to lynch their country’s last hope of salvation.”
“We had some privileges that we didn’t know how to defend, and so we forfeited them to the apprentice mullahs….It would be marvelous to stand in front of a shop window, leaning against you, or to sit at a table, just the two of us, chatting away or making fantastic plans. But that’s no longer possible.”
”How could he have believed that lovers’ promenades were still possible in a city that looks like a hospice for the moribund, overrun with repellent fanatics whose eyes stare out of the dark backward and abysm of time? How could he have lost sight of the horrors that punctuate daily life in a nation so contemptible its official language is the whip?”
“You’re happy, but you don’t know it. All your life, you’ve only listened to other people – your teachers and your holy men, your leaders and your demons – and they’ve spoken to you of nothing but wrongs and bitterness and war.”


There are some startlingly brutal images contained in this small volume. This is a tragedy, and things will not end well for all these characters. But I feel that I have gained a little understanding of the situation by reading this novel, and for that I’m grateful.
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LibraryThing member Olivermagnus
This is a story about two Afghani couples from different social backgrounds living under the Taliban regime. The younger couple, named Mohsen and his beautiful wife named Zunaira, a former brilliant teacher in days before the Taliban take over, come from a wealthy background but lost everything in
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the Taliban regime including their pride. The other couple is Atiq, a prison keeper, who has embraced the ideals of the Taliban, has been married for many years to a chronically ill and depressed woman named Musarrat. He is obligated to his wife for saving his life when he was a young man.

Atiq's job is to guard the Taliban's prisoners before they are to be publicly executed for infractions. He is a man who does as he is told and feels that life is cruel for his lot in life with his sickly wife and his passionless mundane existence. Mohsen is also frustrated and cannot accept the horrible changes in his country that he can do nothing about. His wife must give up her career and can only be seen in public if escorted and veiled. One day in his powerless state, he joins a maddening mob as they publicly stone to death a young woman accused of adultery. He is appalled at his uncharacteristic behavior and is ashamed to tell his wife.

Taliban thugs roam the streets with whips and the penalty for truth is death. Even veterans must pretend that the corpses of God's warriors are bathed in a musky perfume and never decompose. The Swallows of Kabul is a scathing indictment of a society where the worship of a fundamentalist God makes life uninhabitable. Wherever you live today, be grateful you don't live the type of miserable existence described in this book.
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