Press
May 27, 2018
La Strata reviews Khalifa’s “No Knives”: “Khalifa’s novels are large domestic frescoes that exude History”

La Strata reviews Khalifa’s “No Knives”: “Khalifa’s novels are large domestic frescoes that exude History”

Published by La Stampa, March 10, 2018

Aleppo, a family portrait in an inferno, between Vivaldi’s music and street bombs

The lives of four brothers unravel parallel to the construction of the Assad regime. From the 70s, with the occupation of the army and schools, to the (disappointed) hopes of the 2000s.

 

The novels of Khaled Khalifa are large domestic frescoes that exude History; first, with In Praise of Hatred, and now perhaps even more so with the new No Knives in the Kitchens of This City. This family saga, reminiscent of The Buddenbrooks, focuses on the individual failure to tell the social and political story of Syria, at the hands of a vulgar and unscrupulous clan, which rose to power after the coup of 1963 and is still at the helm, in spite of, or thanks to, the last seven years of war… Read more in Italian