Samak mayyet yatanaffas qushour al laymoun

Latakia, a Syrian coastal town in the mid-1980s, is the backdrop of this story. A group of friends in their early twenties forms a rock band called The Black Birds. The band experiences one epic success at a concert on the stage of the local church. That performance remains engraved in the memory of the city as well as in the minds of the band members, who felt that night that they were truly musicians, that their music carried meaning, and that they could convey people’s rejection of the city’s transformation and destruction by the local regime. Sadly, the band will never experience another moment of glory, and from that point on, things will deteriorate along with the city.
The novel is structured in four parts, each narrated from the perspective of one of the four main characters. The first part is told by Sam, a brilliant and passionate musician. As the son of a family affiliated with the regime, Sam struggles to remain independent of his cousin’s power and influence. Yet, he ultimately succumbs to this pressure, according to one of his friends, another key member of the band, Musa.
The next part is narrated by Mariana, a free spirit who is madly in love with Sam, and he with her. However, Sam is not exactly the reliable type, and Mariana yearns to escape Syria. She marries the mediocre George and settles into a bland marriage in Boston. Her periodic visits to Latakia reunite her with Sam and reignite their passion—consummated in their friend Anas’s clinic during lunch breaks. With each visit, Mariana bitterly witnesses the band falling apart despite their efforts to revive it.
The third part is told by Musa, the son of an old, powerful, and wealthy family of land and business owners in the region. Musa also struggles to break free from the burdens imposed by his extended family. While he accepts the shops his grandfather gifts him in Latakia’s busiest commercial streets—an acceptance that some of his friends, like Sam, cannot comprehend—he also marries Manal, with whom he falls deeply in love. Manal comes from a different sect and the poorest parts of society. She will never be welcomed by Musa’s family, which ultimately breaks ties with him.
The fourth part is narrated by Manal, the soul of the band, who writes the song lyrics. Manal’s father traffics young girls for temporary marriage, a form of legal, yet socially shunned, prostitution, including his own daughter, Rima. He also becomes a corpse washer in an attempt to salvage his reputation. Manal cleverly escapes her father’s power over her, but suffers from her sister’s fate, and the family’s history. Through language and literature, Manal finds her way to salvation, which crystallizes in her marriage with Musa. But she is never able to completely turn her back to her family. Consumed by guilt, she remains a part of them.
Each part is told in the first person, and presents the most inner thoughts of the protagonist. All of them mention the epic night of the concert, their early lives, their dreams, and their disappointments, mainly with each other and with the place they live in.

“Dead Fish Breathing Lemon Peel” is an ode to youth, an exploration of young people’s dreams, and their fierce determination to pursue them, however absurd and impossible those dreams may seem. It is a coming-of-age novel of sorts, tracing the evolution of these youths into adulthood and the transformation of this group of friends from very different walks of life (and sects), brought together by their love of music and the dream of a free city. Despite their individual efforts to find their place in life away from the constraints of their closed society, they either break or give in, ultimately succumbing to the molds they once rebelled against.
Through their failure to survive as true free spirits, Khalifa depicts the destruction of the coastal town of Latakia, with its seafront agonizing under the relentless work of bulldozers and concrete mixers. By choosing characters from the various main sects and social strata of the city, Khalifa offers a complex portrait of what could have been a rich, vibrant place. With its multiple voices, the novel provides a diversity of perspectives on each of the main characters, illustrating how each one struggles with the dynamics of their family and social environment, thereby cleverly demonstrating how notions like “right” and “wrong” are not always easily applicable to personal choices. From this perspective, “Dead Fish Breathing Lemon Peel” is a modern tragedy, the protagonists of which are trying to fight against their destiny.