- Hardcover: 272 pages
- Publisher: Hushion House; illustrated edition edition (June 2003)
- Language: English
- ISBN-10: 1902881753
- ISBN-13: 978-1902881751
- Product Dimensions: 22.6 x 14.4 x 2.8 cm
- Shipping Weight: 481 g
- Average Customer Review: 4.3 out of 5 stars See all reviews (3 customer reviews)
- Amazon Bestsellers Rank: #1,286,870 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)
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Product Details |
Product Description
From Publishers Weekly
Nafa Walid is a handsome aspiring actor in 1990s Algiers when he stumbles on a position as a driver for the Rajas, a wealthy and influential family. Instead of providing the springboard for his career he'd hoped for, however, the job serves as a brutal encounter with economic disparity and the amoral, inhumane world of his employers. When the demands of the work push him too far, he returns home, disillusioned. Frustrated with poverty and the inequalities of the Algerian social order, Nafa sees the mosque as his ticket to dignity and a better life, including marriage. Yet his plans go awry again, as Nafa is hurtled into Islamism, the revolutionary Islamic Salvation Front and a nihilistic desire for destruction. Khadra (In the Name of God), a.k.a. Mohammed Moulessehoul, a former Algerian army officer living in exile in France, charts with stark, unsparing prose the conditions of civil war-torn Algeria, and offers a profound glimpse into lives subsumed by violent, unquestioning faith.
Copyright © Reed Business Information, a division of Reed Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved. --This text refers to the Paperback edition.
Copyright © Reed Business Information, a division of Reed Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved. --This text refers to the Paperback edition.
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Customer Reviews
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Most helpful customer reviews
3 of 3 people found the following review helpful
5.0 out of 5 stars
Amazing,
By Mansizedtarget.com (Florida) - See all my reviews
This review is from: Wolf Dreams (Hardcover)
I really enjoyed this book. It followed the path of Jihadi from disaffected youth to unstoppable monster. It showed how vague idealism and vanity can create a perfect storm from which otherwise normal and ambitious young men are transformed into vicious monsters that will kill women and children. I thought the complexity of this book extended further than expected, including portrayals of strong (but amoral) women as well as redeeming grace and nobility from otherwise corrupt aristocrats. The author is often ambivalent about the competing sects in Algerian society, even though it is plain that he does not withhold moral judgment from the terrorist/protagonist. I think that the issue of our times is Islamic terorrism and Yasmina Khadra gets inside of the terrorist mind and the social-psychology of the Casbah in a way that is neither overly didactic, nor morally obtuse. I think this book exceeds "In the Name of God" both as a narrative and for showing how Islamists are a form of revolutionary at war with existing society, in spite of their pretensions of conserving Islam in pure form.
3 of 3 people found the following review helpful
5.0 out of 5 stars
A Bright Light on a Dark Subject,
By
This review is from: Wolf Dreams (Hardcover)
This is a book that surprised me with its insights. The author was recommended by NYT book review but the insights into the Islamic Fundamentalist culture and the violent whirlpool that a young man can be sucked into were a surprising revelation. The relatively innocent immature young man who starts out the book slowly is degraded into a monster who is to be destroyed. I often thought of the young men who flew planes into the World Trade Center and the corruption of their souls that turned them into monsters who needed to be destroyed.
3.0 out of 5 stars
Compelling,
By
This review is from: Wolf Dreams (Hardcover)
This is a gripping story but a poor translation which greatly diminishes the poetic use of language this author writes with. Reading "Swallows of Kabul", with a different translator, makes this obvious.
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