Khaled Khalifa, in an interview with Marianne Meunier for La Croix, March 10, 2023
Originally from Aleppo, Khaled Khalifa lives in Damascus, which he never wanted to leave despite the conflict. He reads there alone, saddened to no longer be able to discuss his reading with his relatives, most of whom have left.

Published by Zeit Online, on February 15th, 2023, translated from the Arabic into German by Larissa Bender
Below some excerpts in English, translated with the help of Google translate.
Photo credit (c) Hassan Ammar / AP / Aleppo
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“I never thought that one day I would stand on the hilltop of the world and see Syria being hit by an earthquake. The earth had trembled a few times when I was growing up, and all I remember is my mother’s fear that we would all die under the rubble. She woke us up after midnight and got us out quickly. The …

Review by Joseph Croitoru for Frankfurter Allgemeine, 2 May 2022
When dreams go away: Khaled Khalifa recounts the recent history of Aleppo in his novel “No One prayed at their graves”.
Some works of fiction, even if not necessarily the author’s intention, can take on astonishing poignancy over time. Such is the case with Syrian author Khaled Khalifa’s latest novel, “No One Prayed at their Graves,” originally published in 2019, which evokes a forgotten era in Aleppo’s history and is now available in German in an excellent translation by Larissa Bender.

As Khalifa’s “Death is hard work” was a finalist of  the Premio Gregor Von rezzori award 2020, his previous novel “There are no knives in the kitchens of the city” gains attention in German speaking territory, and was featured in a dedicated 4 minutes film on 3 Sat TV!

Listen to the interview here.

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?