In the Name of God

#177
Title: In the Name of God
Authors: Yasmina Khadra (pseud. of Mohammed Moulessehoul)
Publisher: The Toby Press
Year: 2000
Country: Algeria
218 pages

I already had Algeria covered (Camus), but thought I'd read something contemporary. In the Name of God is a novel that begins with an introduction to a number of people in a small Algerian town, including three friends. It then follows the events as Islamic fundamentalism grows stronger. The prose is sometimes straightforward and clean, sometimes rather purple, especially when the author strains for metaphors and similes. The violence is explicit and graphic without being particularly voyeuristic. A good novel to read in conjunction with Khaled Hosseini's A Thousand Splendid Suns or The Kite Runner, as well as some of the Southeast Asian and African literature I've been reviewing. Conclusion: Wars are pretty similar in many ways, but each has its own characteristic affronts.