Middle Eastern Fiction, African Fiction, Middle Eastern Peoples & Cultures - Fiction & Literature, Police Stories

Morituri

Name: Morituri
Author: Yasmina Khadra
ISBN: 9782070409662

by Yasmina Khadra

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Overview

This remarkable roman policier introduces us to the formidable and yet very human detective-writer, Superintendent Llob and his devoted lieutenant Lino. It follows Llob in his search for the missing daughter of Ghoul Malek, one of the top power brokers in Algiers. In his search, Llob must traverse the fear-filled streets of Algiers, from the dens of the drug pushers to those of the cruel and fanatical Islamic fundamentalists. The poverty and constant terror and suspicion endemic to Algiers, torn apart by civil war, is set against contrasting glimpses of the corrupt and luxurious high society. The memory of the serene and beautiful Algiers that was makes the current situation all the more heartbreaking. More than just an outstanding mystery novel, with Morituri Khadra paints an unforgettable picture of the tragedy of modern Algeria, in language of breathtaking power and poetry.

About the Author, Yasmina Khadra

Yasmina Khadra

Yasmina Khadra is actually the nom de plume of Algerian army officer Mohammed Moulessehoul -- who took on the feminine pseudonym to avoid submitting his manuscripts for approval by military censors while he was still in the army. “Yasmina Khadra’s Kabul is hell on earth, a place of hunger, tedium, and stifling fear,” observes J. M. Coetzee, winner of the 2003 Nobel Prize for Literature.

Biography

Yasmina Khadra is the nom de plume of the Algerian army officer Mohammed Moulessehoul, who is the author of four other books published in English: Double Blanc, Morituri, In the Name of God and Wolf Dreams. He took the feminine pseudonym to avoid submitting his manuscripts for approval by military censors while he was still in the army. He lives in France.

Author biography courtesy of Random House, Inc.

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Editorials

The New York Times

The narrator, a police officer called Llob and identified as ''the cleverest, most outstanding cop in the land,'' is understandably incensed when he is assigned by his shady superiors to find the missing daughter of an organized crime boss named Ghoul Malek. For all his grumbling, Llob throws himself into the investigation, confronting sleazy characters in the most gaudy, if disreputable, precincts of the city. Marilyn Stasio

The Washington Post

Khadra writes with a vehemence that comes from his memory of a different, more benign and beautiful Algiers that once was and might again be. The book rushes forward propelled by that rage. There are beautifully engineered vignettes and stunning, sharp bits of dialogue. Khadra is often able to finesse the prosaic bits of information-gathering and interviews with suspects that hobble less intelligent mystery writers. The harsh brilliance of the prose is quirky, though: Wonderful lines alternate with overly abstract and convoluted baroque phrasings, and the passive voice often disrupts the forward tumble of action. But on the whole this is a remarkable entrance to a world that remains unknown to too many of us. Paul Skenazy