Home » Archive

Articles tagged with: Death is hard work

Press »

[16 Apr 2020 | No Comment | 237 views]
” ‘Death is hard work’ but life is just as troublesome!” FAZ interviews Khaled Khalifa as his novel “There are no knives in the kitchens of the city” is about to get published in Germany

Interviewed by Lena Bopp for FAZ, April 13, 2020
In his novels, Khaled Khalifa goes to court with the Syrian regime. Nevertheless, the writer still lives in Damascus and voluntarily returns to his home country from every trip abroad. How can that be?
 

News, Press »

[9 Oct 2019 | No Comment | 154 views]
National Book Award: Khaled Khalifa is a finalist with “Death is hard work”

The mission of the National Book Award is to “celebrate the best literature in America, expand its audience, and ensure that books have a prominent place in American culture”

The winner will be announced on November 20th.
 
Death is hard work has received a lot of praise (see below) in the various countries where it was published (see list of cessions below).
Bulbul’s father just passed away in a Damascus hospital. His last request to his son was to be buried in his hometown of Aannabiya, in the province of Aleppo.

News »

[18 Sep 2019 | No Comment | 77 views]
Khalifa’s “Death is hard work” is on the longlist of the 2019 National Book Award!

Khaled Khalifa’s “Death is hard work” is on the longlist of the National Book Award!
The shortlist will be announced on October 8th, and the winner on November 20th.
 
 
The book has received wonderful praise:
“Masterly”
The New York Review of Books
“Brilliant”   “Unforgettable”
Wall Street Journal 

“Astonishing”     “recalls Faulkner’s “As I Lay Dying””   “The power of the novel — of all Khalifa’s novels — is that it unfolds within a human context”
Los Angeles Times

“Intensely readable” “wryly compelling”
Financial times

“Robust in its doubts, humane in its gaze and gentle in its persistence”
The Guardian

“Stunning”
Herald
“Compelling book. …

Press »

[13 May 2019 | No Comment | 46 views]
Khalifa’s “Death is hard work” is “intensely readable” “wryly compelling” – Financial Times

A review by Financial Times, May 10th 2019
Despite its relentlessly bleak subject matter, Death Is Hard Work is intensely readable. As the pages turn, one is impelled to keep up with the al-Salim siblings as they race against time…  

Press »

[12 May 2019 | No Comment | 114 views]
The Guardian “Death is hard work” is “robust in its doubts, humane in its gaze and gentle in its persistence”

A review by Hisham Matar, for The Guardian, May 11th, 2019
Set three years into the Syrian civil war, the novel’s plot is compellingly simple. Bolbol, the deeply sensitive and conflicted protagonist, has just lost his father. He gathers his two older siblings, Hussein and Fatima, to help him honour their father’s last wish – to be buried in Anabiya, the family’s ancestral village, about 350km north of Damascus. Ordinarily, the journey would take under five hours; if it weren’t for the sad occasion it would be a pleasurable drive, with …