Wolf Dreams
by Yasmina Khadra
How does a handsome young man who keeps company with poets and dreams of fame and fortune in the movie business become a brutal killer who massacres women and children without turning a hair? “Wolf Dreams” reveals this transformation in a novel of unflinching detail and commanding prose. The story follows Nafa Walid, heart-throb of the Casbah, as he gradually loses control of his destiny and becomes drawn into the Islamic Fundamentalist movement. “Wolf Dreams” illustrates how disappointment and disillusion, when they intersect with the persuasive voice of fundamentalism and the chaos of civil war, can transform a normal, middle-class young man into a mindless assassin; a man who inflicts pain and terror on others without qualms, and accepts the idea of his own death with devotion.