Titles

• No one prayed over their graves | Lam yusalli ‘alayhim ahad (2019) – view details
• Death is hard work | Al mawt aamalon chaq (2015) – view details
• There are no knives in the kitchens of the city | La sakakin fi matabekh hathihi al madina (2013) – view details
• In praise of hatred | Madih al-Karahiya (2006 – 2008) – view details
• The notebooks of the Bohemians | Dafater al-Qurbat (2000) – view details

Biography

Khaled Khalifa was born in 1964, in a village close to Aleppo, Syria. He is the fifth child of a family of thirteen siblings.

He obtains a Bachelor degree of law and actively participates to the foundation of Aleph, a magazine, with a group of writers and poets. A few months later, the magazine was forbidden by the Syrian censorship.

He currently lives in Damascus where he writes scripts for cinema and television.

Khalifa’s ‘Death is hard work’ was on the shortlist to the National Book Award in the US, in 2019.

In the press

“Death is hard work” 

“Brilliant”   “Unforgettable” — (Wall street journal, 2019)

 “Astonishing”  — (Los Angeles Times, 2019)

“Compelling” — (Neue Zürcher Zeitung, 2018)

“Deep black, gruesome, moving comedy” — (Literatur Spiegel, 2018)

“There are no knives in the kitchens of the city”

“Most important voice of Syrian literature today” — (La Reppublica, 2018)

“The horror of living in Aleppo come pounding to life in this book” — (The New York Times, 2016)

“Magnificent” (Barnes and Nobel, 2016)

 “Superb” “A pleasure to read” (The Guardian, 2016)

Cessions

• No one prayed over their graves (2019)

• Death is hard work (2015)

• There are no knives in the kitchens of the city (2013)

• In praise of hatred (2006) 

[Updated September 2022]