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The Attack
The Attack
Aug 18, 2025 6:12 PM

Author:Yasmina Khadra,John Cullen

The Attack

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.

Reviews

A powerful and thought-provoking novel

—— Guardian

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 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

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

—— Literary Review

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 delightful first novel about a young Indian called Mousumi visiting her sophisticated relations in London ... A coming-of-age story with a difference.

—— Oxford Times

Hugely gratifying in the way that only Cooper can be

—— Mail on Sunday

Triumphantly good

—— The Sunday Times

The prospect of Jilly's return, with a novel set in the glamorous international art world and promising "oodles of bad behaviour, intrigue, passion, tears and laughter", will surely cheer all but the most misanthropic

—— Bookseller

There is enough plot for several novels here (enough sex for dozens), all vividly conveyed in the author's excitable style... Her many fans will not be disappointed

—— Literary Review

This modern day mythical fantasy is Anne Rice on an epic scale, a hugely imagined world. A chiller thriller from cold of Russia, this one's been selling like hot cakes around the world

—— Sunday Sport
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