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  • Published: 2 July 2007
  • ISBN: 9780099499275
  • Imprint: Vintage
  • Format: Paperback
  • Pages: 272
  • RRP: $29.99

The Attack



A strikingly powerful novel exploring the motivations of a suicide bomber in Israel, told through the eyes of her husband.

Now an award-winning film, winner of the Frankfurt Book Fair prize for best literary film adaptation.

Tel Aviv. A suicide bomber has killed 19 in a packed city centre restaurant. Dr Amin Jaafie, an Israeli Arab, is a surgeon at a nearby hospital. Respected and admired by his colleagues, the doctor represents integration at its most successful. But this night of turmoil and death takes a horrifyingly personal turn as his beloved wife's body is found among the dead... could she have caused the devestation?

From the graphic, shocking description of the bombing that opens the novel to its searing conclusion, The Attack portrays the reality of terrorism and its costs. Intense and humane, thoughtful, sensitive and heartfelt, it displays a profound understanding of that which can seem incomprehensible.

  • Published: 2 July 2007
  • ISBN: 9780099499275
  • Imprint: Vintage
  • Format: Paperback
  • Pages: 272
  • RRP: $29.99

About the author

Yasmina Khadra

Yasmina Khadra is the nom de plume of the Algerian army officer, Mohammed Moulessehoul, who took a feminine pseudonym to avoid submitting his manuscripts for approval by the army. He is the author of The Attack, Swallows of Kabul, In the Name of God and Wolf Dreams.

Also by Yasmina Khadra

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Praise for The Attack

A powerful and thought-provoking novel

Guardian

Khadra has an easy-going style, and tailors his discussions of the Arab-Israeli conflict to the form of a thriller. The fuse lit at the beginning of the novel crackles through the story to its clever destination

James Francken, Daily Telegraph

The characters are not mere mouthpieces - above all else, this is a novel about a man who feels himself betrayed. Amin Jaafie's very human drama is the heart of this thoughtful and affecting work

Kamila Shamsie, New Statesman

Probably Khadra's most ambitious novel to date...[the] power is in the lucidity and the intelligence of the terrorists Amin despises

Gerry Feehily, Independent

A moving, often troubling exploration of faith, self-belief and identity... The writing has a rare courage. This is a novel from a skilled storyteller working at the height of his powers

Times Literary Supplement

Khadra is a passionately moral writer, but he rarely sits in judgement... A magnificent novel, believable and moving

Literary Review