Rating: 
Summary: Religion and social issues come to life
Review: Set in Kabul with the Taliban in charge, Yasmina Khadra presents the lives of two couples: one a family of wealthy shopkeepers destroyed by the Taliban, and the other a prison keeper who believes in the Taliban ideology and struggles to keep his faith. Islamic passion, religion and social issues come to life in The Swallows Of Kabul: there are very few novels which explore this region of the world and the poetic, literary style of Khadra's will find a home with many American readers.
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Summary: Reality Literature: Television is not Enough
Review: Since the launch of the CNN network in 1980, Americans have had the ability to observe news and life around the globe for the first time twenty-four hours a day. Today, seventy-eight million households in the United States can turn to the network for updates on various national and international issues including the war against terror. Although many have personal ties to the war, most Americans are far removed from what life is like for those who live in Afghanistan under the rule of the Taliban. Mere glimpses of the land and interviews with citizens of the country can hardly give viewers an accurate depiction of Afghan life like Yasmina Khadra has in "The Swallows of Kabul." Khadra's narrative employs vivid descriptions in an effort to depict the horrors and turmoil existing in Afghanistan that is virtually incomprehensible for Americans. Driving the plot are the struggles faced by the two couples, Mohsen and Zunaira and Atiq and Musarrat, which are further complicated by living in the tumultuous environment that is Afghanistan.
Mohsen and his wife Zunaira struggle to cope with the changes brought by the rule of Taliban. Mohsen is collapsing under the pressures of the different way of life from before. Almost immediately he is seen conforming to the Taliban way, a way that is responsible for the loss of his house and business. Zunaira has been surviving in this environment with the love of her husband despite the loss of her career. As Zunaira must wear a burga to cover her body, she and her husband must hide within themselves their contempt for the Taliban rule.
Atiq works in a women's jail, walking those condemned to their execution. He struggles with the injustices witnessed around him and feels helpless, as he can do nothing to change things. Distracting him from his struggles with his environment is Atiq's sick wife, Musarrat. Musarrat is a symbol of the breakdown of the former way of life in Kabul. In the same way that Musarrat withers away to her death, the values and ideals of those opposed to Taliban wither as well. Thus, Mohsen's act of participating in the public stoning shows how his values wither as his time under Taliban rule progresses.
Khadra intelligently unites the stories of the two couples in the novel through a series of shocking events. Zunaira is sentenced to public execution upon the accidental murder of her husband. It is at this point where Atiq comes to contact with her as she is held in the prison he works at. The dying Musarrat offers a plan to save Zunaira and replace herself with the condemned woman in hopes that Atiq may have someone to serve him when she soon passes. Events do not unfold as planned and we are once again reminded that in Kabul hope appears a mere handicap for its citizens.
Freedoms often enjoyed by Americans are near unmentionable to those in Kabul. While we in the United States enjoy free speech, including the right to dissent, Khadra's four characters attempt to cope with what they face and are burdened with the inability to foresee a brighter future. "The Swallows of Kabul" is a beautifully crafted novel that not only introduces readers to the reality of life under the Taliban but also creates a compelling story that opens one's eyes to appreciate the freedoms we possess, inciting readers to challenge and oppose similar injustices inflicted on others throughout the world.
Rating: 
Summary: good look at a place and time
Review: The book does a good job of exposing the degrading effects of religious fundamentalism. Those struggling to understand Judaic or Christian fundamentalism may be more able to see it slant through the portrait of Islamic fundamentalism drawn here. For those who still think our current problems have little to do with deep-seated tendencies found within Islam, this book might illuminate this very real problem. The Jerry Falwells of the western world are scary, but they haven't advocated public stonings. The prose can be overwrought--though stick with it, it gets mostly better after the "tries too hard" or "lost in translation" first paragraph. The plot is a bit predictable and heavy handed. However, social and marital relationships and individual psychology are a strong point of the author's, the above warnings notwithstanding. He evidently has a keen and sensitive mind.
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Summary: Chronicling the degradation of a society.
Review: The Swallows of Kabul : A Novel by Yasmina Khadra (actually, Yashima Khandra is a pen name. The author is actually a former officer in the Afghani military) is a small yet powerful novel. Set in the Afghanistan of the Taliban, it presents the story of three individuals: Mohsen Ramat and his wife, Zunaira, as well as a Kabul jail guard named Atiq Shaukat.Moshen and Zunaria meet while both are students during the reign of the Russians in occupied Afghanistan. They marry and go on to professional careers. Then the Russians are expelled and things go radically downhill for the couple. The Taliban take over. The Taliban decide Moshen's ties to the previous regime were too close and they destroy the couples house, leaving them living in a hot, stifling mud hovel. Naturally, under the Taliban Zunaria's legal career ends and she is more or less stranded inside the hovel, forced to wear burqa on the rare occasions she leaves her home. To say their relationship is under strain is an understatement. It collapses completely over two separate, ugly incidents. First, Moshen participates in the public stoning of a prostitute, an act that enrages Zunaria. Then, while out on a walk, Taliban enforcers find their behavior unacceptable, club Moshen on the street and take him onto a mosque for hours of interrogation. Zunaria sees Moshen's acquiescence in this act as cowardly and truly begins to loath him. Shortly thereafter a marital spat at home erupts and gets out of control. Moshen falls, hitting his head on the wall, and dies. Though the death is in fact accidental, Zunaria is charged with murder and thrown into jail. Enter Atiq. He is a guard at the Kabul prison where Zunaria is interred. Atiq is a man at war with himself. He hates his job, tending and terrifying people whom he realizes are generally innocent of any real crime other than coming to the unfortunate attention of the regime of the moment. His home life provides even less succor as his wife, whom he no longer loves, is dying an awful yet slow death. Atiq falls in love with Zunaria almost on sight and this event triggers a remarkable string of events which, to delineate, would mar significantly, I feel, the appreciation of the story. Throughthe rendering of these events we are privy to the destruction and degradation of a society undergoing incessant political and social turmoil. It's not a pretty picture. However, the novel is brilliantly written, the story is full of paradoxes and Khandra effectively evokes the terror and futility of life under the Tliban for the common Afghani. If not a happy tale, it is, somehow, a hopeful one that amply rewards the reader who can navigate it. That takes some doing. To read this novel is both an intellectual as well as a visceral undertaking. Readers should recognize that this is not a happy story that contains explicit renderings of horrific violence. Those who do not care for such violent fare may want to avoid the book.
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Summary: Poetic and Haunting
Review: This book is a mesmerizing read. The adjectives that come to mind are "poetic" and "haunting." Months after finishing The Swallows of Kabul, I am still struck by its sophisticated simplicity; the author skillfuly navigates his four characters through the political, social, religious, and emotional turmoil of their shared existence to a climaxed ending.
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Summary: Worth Swallowing!
Review: This little novel about the atrocities suffered by Afghani people is a real eye-opener and only takes an afternoon to get through but it will stay with you for a lifetime.
Yasmina Khadra is actually a man, Mohammed Moulessehoul, and he has written a hauntingly beautiful novel filled with spirit and tragedy along with many important truths. Khadra takes his readers through the daily lives of two main characters along with their wives and profoundly reveals the harshness of life in Kabul under the Taliban rule. In a country out of control and under a religious zealot scrutiny we meet Moshen and his wife Zunaira. Moshen is changing and sadly falling to the stresses of what his once enjoyable life has become. His wife Zunaira, still extraordinarily beautiful and strong now finds herself shrouded in darkness under a dirty burqa and within the walls of her home now boarded up. Moshen and Zunaira are subjected to abuses outside their home and begin to lose their sense of self-worth thus expanding the despair into their relationship at home as well. Another family exists in Kabul who will play an integral part in the lives of Moshen and Zunaira, this couple is Atiq and his wife Musarrat. Atiq must work and he finds himself employed at a woman's jail and becomes the last person who walks the imprisoned women towards their executions. Atiq can see the injustice but can do nothing about the rules imposed upon society by the Taliban. His wife, Musarrat, is aged and ailing under the strain of life and the lack of healthcare but she is Atiq's one shining light. Khadra weaves the lives of these two families into one that will remain in your heart.
Watching how life unfolds in Afghanistan today on the TV does not give the actual existence a voice but this novel by Khadra certainly does. It is possible to smell the stench, to breathe the filth, to taste the bitterness and to see the destruction through Khadra's words. He touches upon the way a life changes when faced with circumstances no longer under individual control. He makes sense out of hatred and the depths of hopelessness suffered by people who see no future. So where do they turn? Khadra describes so eloquently the beginnings of "terrorism" in this verse, "Whenever Atiq sees these children, he feels a deep uneasiness. They're invading the city inexorably, like the packs of wild dogs that turn up out of nowhere, feed in rubbish dumps and garbage cans, eventually colonize whole neighborhoods, and keep the citizenry at bay. The innumerable madrassas, the religious schools that spring up like mushrooms on every street corner, no longer suffice to hold all the children. Every day, their numbers increase and their threat grows, and no one in Kabul cares." Khadra provides a key to the world on where "terrorism" begins and shows the world that hate and more violence isn't the way to end something that begins in such misery. This little book of insight into life within Kabul is sometimes hard to swallow but then all medicine starts out that way until the benefits are reaped.
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Summary: A Corruption of the Spirit
Review: This weekend I was able to read two books that take place in Kabul, Afghanistan. The first, "The Swallows of Kabul," and the second, "The Bookseller of Kabul." The first is a novel, the second a work of non-fiction; the first concurrent with the reign of the Taliban, the second post-Taliban. Together they provide an interesting look at the horrors of religious fundamentalism in both its extreme and slightly more moderate aspects. "The Swallows of Kabul," by Yasmina Khadra, an Algerian who writes in French and lives in Mexico, is a deep look into the minds of four main characters who suffer the psychological horrors of living through the era of the Taliban, and to read this book is to know the Taliban and the evil they have wrought. "Taliban" is translated as "religious students," but they are religious psychopaths. They were organized to fight the Russians during their occupation of Afghanistan, and then to wage civil war against rival "mujahideen" - "holy warriors." The Taliban reached the height of their power between 1996 and 2001 when they were driven to the hills by the American forces reacting to 9/11. In an effort to eradicate Western values in Afghanistan the Taliban instituted a regime marked by anti-pleasure (read "anti-life") extremism. They were initially accepted by the citizenry as a corrective to the political corruption of the previous regime, but what they accomplished was a corruption of the spirit of a citizenry made fragile by years of war. The Taliban were (and are) militantly anti-democratic, anti-art, even anti-kite-flying misogynists who ruled through fear, torture, and public execution. I can't speak to Mr. Khadra's French, but his translator has provided us with an English version that is readable if not as poetic as it tries to be. What holds the book together is the insight Mr. Khadra brings to the ravages of the soul brought about by extreme Islamic fundamentalism, and the translation though a bit clunky does not unsalvageably mar Mr. Khadra's efforts. I believe literature that strives to be great art is marked by its characters' pull toward redemption. "The Swallows of Kabul," is a plea for the redemption of the individual as well as the Afghan society - it's a shame it will be little read in the society about which it was written.
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