Yasmina Khadra

An Alger­ian nov­el­ist, Yas­mi­na Khadra was born in the Sahara. At the age of nine, his father put him in mil­i­tary cadet school, where he was des­tined for a career as an offi­cer. He pub­lished six nov­els from 1984 to 1989 under his real name, Mohammed Moulesse­houl. In 1989, mil­i­tary reg­u­la­tions imposed a cen­sor­ship board which oblig­ed him to write in secret for 11 years, before defin­i­tive­ly choos­ing to write under the pseu­do­nym Yas­mi­na Khadra, made up of his wife’s first names. The writer retired from the army in Sep­tem­ber 2000 to con­cen­trate on lit­er­a­ture. His works such as “The Swal­lows of Kab­ul,” “The Attack” and “What the Day Owes the Night” have been adapt­ed into films, com­ic books and plays, have been pub­lished in 58 coun­tries and have touched mil­lions of readers.