Yasmina Khadra

Yasmina Khadra is the pen name of Mohammed Moulessehoul, an Algerian novelist writing in French, born on 10 January 1955 in Kenadsa. An officer in the Algerian army for twenty-five years, he wrote under his wife's two first names to escape military censorship, and revealed his identity in 2001, after leaving the service. The Inspector Llob crime novels — Morituri, Double Blank, Autumn of the Phantoms — first made his name; there followed The Swallows of Kabul (2004), The Attack (2006), The Sirens of Baghdad (2007), What the Day Owes the Night (2010) and Khalil (2021). Four of his novels have been adapted for the screen. He directed the Algerian Cultural Centre in Paris until 2014, and won the Prix des libraires in 2006.