logo
episode-header-image
Jun 2015
50 m

Yasmina Khadra - The Swallows of Kabul

Bbc World Service
About this episode

The Algerian writer Yasmina Khadra discusses his novel, The Swallows of Kabul - a portrait of life under a tyrannical theocracy. Khadra is actually a man, and took a pseudonym (his wife's!) during his career in the Algerian Army during the civil war. His book follows a group of people struggling to hold on to their humanity in a world where pleasure is a sin and death awaits anyone who breaks the rules. Khadra answers questions from BBC listeners worldwide, in discussion with Harriett Gilbert.

(Photo: Yasmina Khadra. Credit: E.Robert-Espalieu)

Up next
Aug 1
Kaarina Parker: Fulvia
Kaarina Parker talks about her debut novel set in ancient Rome - Fulvia. The novel tells the tale of Fulvia, the daughter of a wealthy but inconsequential Roman family. Raised in the country, she yearns for excitement, for power. When her father dies and her inheritance is threat ... Show More
49m 23s
Jul 1
Rachel Kushner: The Mars Room
American author Rachel Kusher talks about her award-winning novel, The Mars Room. The novel follows Romy Hall, as she begins two consecutive life sentences at Stanville Women’s Correctional Facility, after killing her stalker.The story weaves between the two sides of Romy’s exist ... Show More
1h 5m
Jun 1
Karin Slaughter: The Good Daughter
World Book Club welcomes Karin Slaughter to answer your questions about her brutal, heart-rending thriller, The Good Daughter.28 years after the murder of their mother, another horrific crime forces sisters Sam and Charlie Quinn to confront the truth about the night that shattere ... Show More
1h 5m
Recommended Episodes
Aug 2022
A photographic journey through the Taliban's takeover of Afghanistan | Kiana Hayeri
Exposing what life looks like in Afghanistan after a 20-year US occupation and the Taliban's stunning and rapid takeover, TED Fellow and documentary photographer Kiana Hayeri captures harrowing glimpses and multifaceted realities of a war-torn country. Through the lens of her cam ... Show More
8m 18s
Dec 2023
Kadare, Gospodinov, Kafka and Dickens
The Palace of Dreams is a novel from 1981 that is ostensibly set in the 19th century Ottoman empire, but the Albanian writer Ismail Kadare cleverly smuggles in thinly veiled criticism of the totalitarian state presided over by Enver Hoxha. The book was duly banned shortly after p ... Show More
45m 7s
Mar 2024
In the Firing Line — With Joumana Haddad and Faisal Al Yafai
<p>“War changes you. It doesn’t necessarily make you a tougher person or a better person or a worse person, but it is a training on the art of dying,” Joumana Haddad tells New Lines’ Faisal Al Yafai. “I’ve always thought about that ever since I can remember. And it’s not easy to ... Show More
48m 14s
Sep 2022
Nahid Shahalimi Gathers the Voices of Afghan Women
It was just a year ago that the U.S. withdrew its troops from Afghanistan. On that date, Nahid Shahalimi, an Afghan female writer living in Germany, realized that she needed to hurry to record the stories of prominent Afghan women who soon would try to escape their country, or st ... Show More
36m 13s
Apr 2019
Field Marshal Khalifa Haftar
<p>As Libya edges towards civil war, Becky Milligan looks at the life of the man behind the most recent conflict, which began with his military assault on the city of Tripoli.</p><p>Known as "The Strongman", Field Marshal Khalifa Haftar comes from a family of soldiers and as a yo ... Show More
13m 48s
Jan 2025
39. The World is Syrianised with Yassin al-Haj Saleh
The Syrian writer and political theorist, Yassin al-Haj Saleh, has lived a remarkable life. As a student activist affiliated with one of Syria's communist parties, Yassin spent 16 years in Hafez al Assad's prisons. Then, shortly after the revolution of 2011, Yassin's wife, Samira ... Show More
43m 6s