What the Day Owes the Night

Moving... This story is about the power of the individual to stand up to history

Daily Telegraph

This tale of family, love and war unfolds in Algeria before and during the armed revolt that led to independence. Caught between two worlds, its hero, Younes, is a sympathetic witness to the doctrines that divide people, and to the passions that may reunite them

Independent

A book in which you may lose yourself in reading and find yourself when you put it aside; an enriching work... sympathetic and humane. The narrative is compelling and there is a rich cast of well observed, or remembered, characters... He presents life as it is, and hints at what it might be

Scotsman

Includes brilliant descriptions of the city's slums and the beauties of the countryside

Times Literary Supplement

Khadra's novel, set almost entirely in Algeria, has wonderful lyrical passages and is distinguished by its sympathetic intelligence...Khadra writes with a beautiful lucidity

Scotsman

Once a counter-terrorism officer in Algeria, now a French-based writer of sophisticated political thrillers under a pseudonym, "Yasmina Khadra" here returns home, and digs further into the roots of violence.... Rich in incident and character (and ably translated by Frank Wynne), the novel shows us from within the colonised Algeria that Camus - as he acknowledged - could only glimpse an outsider.

Independent