The Swallows of Kabul
ABOUT
THE BOOK
Since the ascendancy of the Taliban the lives of Mosheen and his beautiful wife, Zunaira, have been gradually destroyed. Mosheen’s dream of becoming a diplomat has been shattered and Zunaira can no longer even appear on the streets of Kabul unveiled. Atiq is a jailer who guards those who have been condemned to death; the darkness of prison and thewretchedness of his job have seeped into his soul. Atiq’s wife, Musarrat, is suffering from an illness no doctor can cure. The lives of these four people become inexplicably intertwined, through death and imprisonment to passion and extraordinary self-sacrifice. The Swallows of Kabul is an astounding and elegiac novel of four people
struggling to hold on to their humanity in a place where pleasure is a deadly sin and death has become routine.
ABOUT
THE TRANSLATOR John
Cullen
John Cullen in the translator of more than twenty books from the French, Italian, German, and Spanish. His translations of Margaret Mazzantini’s Don’t Move (from the Italian) and Yasmina Khadra’s The Swallows of Kabul (from the French) were short-listed for the International IMPAC Dublin Literary Award. Cullen is the also the co-author with Alexandra de Borchgrave of Villard: The Life and Times of an American Titan. Originally from New Orleans, he lives in Connecticut with the writer Valerie Martin.
John Cullen in the translator of more than twenty books from the French, Italian, German, and Spanish. His translations of Margaret Mazzantini’s Don’t Move (from the Italian) and Yasmina Khadra’s The Swallows of Kabul (from the French) were short-listed for the International IMPAC Dublin Literary Award. Cullen is the also the co-author with Alexandra de Borchgrave of Villard: The Life and Times of an American Titan. Originally from New Orleans, he lives in Connecticut with the writer Valerie Martin.