Yasmina Khadra is the pen name of Mohammed Moulessehoul, who was born in 1955 in the Algerian Sahara. His father joined the Algerian National Liberation Army in 1956 in the war against French colonization. In 1964, two years after Algeria’s independence, Mohammed Moulessehoul was sent to Cadet School by his father to become an officer.
At 17, Mohammed Moulessehoul wrote his first collection of stories, Houria. During his military career, he published six more novels under his real name and enjoyed relative success in his country. In 1988, irritated by the Major Mohammed Moulessehoul’s growing literary notoriety, the Army to submitted him to a censorship board. Major Moulessehoul refused this constraint and, encouraged by his wife, chose to work clandestinely.
In 1989, he published his first crime novel under the pseudonym Commissioner Llob which was a literary success. In 1991, following Fundamentalist hostilities, Major Moulessehoul joined the antiterrorist struggle. In 1997 he published Morituri in France under the pseudonym Yasmina Khadra, which launched wide, unprecedented interest in its unknown author.
After eight years of antiterrorist struggles, Major Moulessehoul retired in September 2000 and leave Algeria for Mexico with the goal of devoting himself entirely to literature.
He received the Médaille d'Or de l'Académie Française in 2001, the Prix des Libraires in 2006. He is currently translated in 25 countries.
|
|
