AL REZ Khalil
Country: Syria
Year of Birth: 1956
Biography
Khalil Alrez is Syrian novelist born in 1956 currently living in Belgium. After a degree in Arabic literature from the University of Aleppo, Khalil moved to Russia from 1984 to 1993 to study theater; he also learned the Russian language while there. He worked in Russia as a translator and radio host. Khalil published 9 novels and 1 play and has also translated various works from Russian into Arabic.
Alrez’s novel “A Sleepless Giraffe in Damascus” was shortlisted for the International Prize for Arabic Fiction in 2020.
Titles
A strawberry-spotted handkerchief | Mandil aala al frawla 2022
A Sleepless Giraffe in Damascus | Al hay al russi 2019
The badal | Al-badal 2017
An equal measure | Bittasawi 2014
Where is Safed, Youssef? | Aina Taqaa Al Safad Ya Youssef 2008
An Ireland Salmon | Salamon Irlandi 2004
A White Cloud in the Window of the Grandmother | Gaima Baidaa fi Shubak Al Gadda 1998
In the press
“A Sleepless Giraffe in Damascus”
“A sagacious, deep novel … A sleepless giraffe in Damascus is a novel of the imagined and the real, casting a glimmer of light on the darkness of war and life.”– Al Akhbar
“Khalil Alrez amazes us with his language that creates events; it is a language that is fresh, reckless, fast, that races against time and surrounds it as it masterfully constructs its world.”– The New Arab
“Khalil Alrez has presented fine art in a narrative space full of touching tales and scenes, as if we had just come out of a captivating fantasy movie.”– Independent Arabia
“A kind of dark comedy or satirical tragedy… One of the most elegant and significant narrative creative works I have read in recent years.”– Rai’ Al Youm
“The reader will never relax, but will anxiously turn the pages with amazement and enjoyment. … With excellent pictorial and descriptive ability, Alrez presents several cinematic scenes in which comedy and black comedy take their turns.”– Awad media
“The novel contains many … scenes overflowing with sweetness that make us stand before them as we stand in front of a painting, contemplating its meanings and melting within the images of beauty scattered in it.” — Al Ketaba
Cessions
A Sleepless Giraffe in Damascus (2019)
Einaudi Stile Libero, Italy (forthcoming)
Editora Tabla, Brazil (forthcoming)
Timaş Yayınları, Turkey (forthcoming
[Updated February 2024]