He is so good at the timely application of those questions that make philosophy interesting... Here at last is someone who can lay these matters out both intelligently and straightforwardly

Any interested reader will be able to accompany him in his philosophical explorations without losing any of their richness and insight

A strange, eloquent and terrifying book

The work of a remarkable talent

A writer who provokes almost as much as he entertains

A transcendentally harmonious and compassionate work

A surprisingly tender book... Amid the terror a classic story about love sneaks through: love lost, love imagined, love morphed into madness

Beautifully written... It puts a human face on the suffering inflicted by the Taliban... Disturbing and mesmerizing, The Swallows of Kabul will stay with you long after you've finished it

Riveting... Spare, taut, and pristinely clear prose... An uncanny knack for making moral tension palpable... Extraordinarily moving

A novel very much in the tradition of Albert Camus, not only in its humanism and concern with the consequences of individual choices but also in its determination to bear witness to the absurdities of daily life... [A] chilling portrait of fundamentalism run amok and its fallout on ordinary people