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Yasmina Khadra (Mohamed Moulessehoul)

At the age of nine, Mohammed Moulessehoul enrolled at the Army Cadets School of El Mechuar. Towards the middle of the Eighties, he published six books of fiction. To avoid Algerian military censorship, he adopted the pseudonym Yasmina Khadra, his wife's name, and published Le Dingue au bistouri (1990), La Foire (1990), Les Califes de l'apocalypse (1991) and Houria (1991), a book of short stories.

He became well known with the publication in France of Morituri (1997), the first book in a trilogy about police superintendent Brahim Llob, and winner of the Trophée 813. Double blanc (1997) and L'automne aux chimères (1998) complete the trilogy, a radical denunciation of radical terrorism. It is followed by the novels In the Name of God (1998) and Wolf Dreams (1999).

After several attempts, he managed to leave the Algerian army (2000), and travelled to Mexico and then to France, where he lives today. The following year he published L'écrivain, an autobiographical novel, in which he reveals his true identity. His latest published titles are The Swallows of Kabul (2002) and Cousine K (2003).