In the silence of the woods of Bainem, the nude body of an attractive young woman appears, with makeup carefully put on her face. She has been oddly and cruelly mutilated, though, as if she were the victim of some ritual. The case is assigned to the team of police commissioner Nora Bilal, a woman with strong convictions who won’t have an easy time solving the case. Not just because she lives within a “phallocratic society,” but also because she is dealing with a case whose loose ends lead towards the country’s powers-that-be, to untouchable people who nobody dares name, but everybody is familiar with. Just mentioning them strikes fear into the hearts of a society that has grown accustomed to living with lies, deception and submissiveness. What Are Monkeys Waiting for... is a dark novel about political intrigue, with a throbbing, dizzying plot. It is a descent towards hell, but instead of being burned, it leads to a recovery of the lost light of hope.

Yasmina Khadra is the pen name that this former commander of the Algerian army, Mohamed Moulessehoul, was forced to take on. For ten years, he had to conceal his identity behind this feminine name so as not to raise suspicion and be able to use his novels to denounce the drama being suffered by his country, from the corruption in circles of power to the bloodthirsty irrationality of Islamic fundamentalisms.