A review by John Domini for The Brooklyn Rail, Published September 2023
From the first, the Syrian novelist Khaled Khalifa scores his latest for full orchestra. The opening page considers the grim aftermath of a devastating Euphrates flood, not far from Aleppo, back in 1907, and it summons every instrument, from tuba to triangle, in a rising crescendo of sorrow:” Before Mariana Nassar lost consciousness, she saw the bodies of her mother, her father, and her four brothers and sisters floating on the river alongside others she recognized: her neighbor and …

The Chicago Review of Books recommends Khalifa’s “No one prayed over their graves” as one of the 12 must reads of July! By Michael Welch, July 5, 2023
 
From the National Book Award finalist Khaled Khalifa comes the story of two friends whose lives are altered by a flood that devastates their Syrian village. On a December morning in 1907, Hanna and Zakariya return to their village near Aleppo to discover that their neighbors and families have all tragically died in a massive flood. The traumatic event forever changes Hanna, who …

Published by ORIENT XXI, on July 7 2023
Hisham navigates in a dream between contemporary Cairo and 8th-century Basra, where Islamic thought is taking shape. In this parallel world, he encounters his doppelganger, Yazid, who frequents the circle of rationalist theologians. With “The Gardens of Basra,” Egyptian novelist Mansoura Ez-Eldin brings back illustrious characters from Islamic history to engage in a dialogue with the living.

Published by Asymptote, on June 5, 2023
In a three part series, Asymptote asks the 2023 PEN/Heim grantees to talk about the books they are working on.
Below, we are happy to share Margaret Litvin’s words on Khalil Alrez’ “A sleepless giraffe in Damascus”.
 
At first it was the rhythm of his sentences: polished and wry, leisurely but not ornamented, like no Arabic prose style I had seen.

By Guirado for Mare Nostrum, January 3, 2023
It all starts with a dream. A haunting and poetic dream in which angels descend from heaven to pick jasmine from the gardens of Basra – present-day Basra in Iraq. This dream continually monopolizes the mind of Hishâm Khattab who, after brilliant studies in geology which did not lead to any professional opportunities, now earns his living by reselling old books.

By Richard Jacquemond, for Le Monde des Livres, February 9th, 2023
Hisham, who lives off the antique book trade, is haunted by a dream. He sees himself alive, under the name of Yazid Ibn Abihi, in Basra (or Basra, name of the second city of Iraq, located in the south of the country), at the end of the first century of the Hegira, when this city was a major intellectual and religious center of the nascent Islamic empire.