KHALIFA Khaled
Country: Syria
Year of Birth: 1964
Biography
Khaled Khalifa (1964-2023) was born in a village close to Aleppo, Syria. He was the fifth child of a family of thirteen siblings.
He obtained a Bachelor degree of law and actively participated 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.
Khalifa’s ‘Death is hard work’ was on the shortlist to the National Book Award in the US, in 2019.
Titles
An eagle on the table | Nisr ‘ala el tawila (2022)
No one prayed over their graves | Lam yusalli ‘alayhim ahad (2019)
Death is hard work | Al mawt aamalon chaq (2015)
There are no knives in the kitchens of the city | La sakakin fi matabekh hathihi al madina (2013)
In praise of hatred | Madih al-Karahiya (2006 – 2008)
The notebooks of the Bohemians | Dafater al-Qurbat (2000)
In the press
“No one prayed over their graves”
“A gorgeous new novel from Khaled Khalifa, one of Syria’s most celebrated novelists… Lush, elegiac… Márquezian… A novel of abundance and generosity . . . At stake is the act of storytelling itself: gossip, religious narrative, war photography, any narrative in which bigotry can reside . . . The pain of witness surfaces across the story.”– Washington Post, 2023
“A beautiful novel . . . Khalifa’s partnership with Leri Price is one of the most fruitful writer-translator pairings in literature today. The recent destruction of Aleppo provides unspoken context, charging the exploration of ruin and aftermath with further heartbreak.”– The Wall Street Journal, 2023
“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)
Farrar Strauss Giroux (2023, USA)
Death is hard work (2015)
Farrar Strauss Giroux (2019, USA)
Faber (2019, UK)
Bompiani (2019, Italy)
Prozart (2019, Macedonia)
Sonia Draga (2019, Poland)
Kastaniotis (2020, Greece)
There are no knives in the kitchens of the city (2014)
Hoopoe, AUC (2016, World English / Egypt)
Bompiani (2018, Italy)
Prozart (2018, Macedonia)
Tudem Egitim (2020, Turkey)
Angustura (2021, Iceland)
In praise of hatred (2006)
Actes Sud, Sindbad (2011, France)
De Geus (2011, Netherlands)
Minuskel (2011, Norway)
Lumen (2012, Spain)
Transworld (2012, UK)
Korridor (2013, Denmark)
[Updated February 2024]
Author's Works
