- 138 pages
- English
- ePUB (mobile friendly)
- Available on iOS & Android
eBook - ePub
About this book
National Book Award Finalist: "The poetic and horrific combine in this tale of love and death set in a Syria torn apart by civil war" (
Guardian, UK).
As elderly Abdel Latif dies peacefully in a hospital bed in Damascus, he relays his final wish to his youngest son Bolbol: to be buried in the family plot in their ancestral village of Anabiya. Though Bolbol is estranged from his siblings, he persuades his older brother Hussein and his sister Fatima to accompany him and the body to Anabiya, which is—after all—only a two-hour drive from Damascus. There's only one problem: Their country is a war zone.
With the landscape of their childhood now a labyrinth of competing armies whose actions are at once arbitrary and lethal, the siblings' decision to set aside their differences and honor their father's request quickly balloons from a minor commitment into an epic and life-threatening quest. Syria, however, is no longer a place for heroes, and the decisions the family must make along the way—as they find themselves captured and recaptured, interrogated, imprisoned, and bombed—will prove to have enormous consequences for all of them.
One of Syria's most acclaimed literary voices, Khaled Khalifa was the greatest chronicler of his country's catastrophic civil war. In Death is Hard Work, he delivers a tale of three ordinary people facing down the stuff of nightmares armed with little more than simple determination.
Winner of the Naguib Mahfouz Medal for Literature
Finalist for the National Book Award for Translated Literature
As elderly Abdel Latif dies peacefully in a hospital bed in Damascus, he relays his final wish to his youngest son Bolbol: to be buried in the family plot in their ancestral village of Anabiya. Though Bolbol is estranged from his siblings, he persuades his older brother Hussein and his sister Fatima to accompany him and the body to Anabiya, which is—after all—only a two-hour drive from Damascus. There's only one problem: Their country is a war zone.
With the landscape of their childhood now a labyrinth of competing armies whose actions are at once arbitrary and lethal, the siblings' decision to set aside their differences and honor their father's request quickly balloons from a minor commitment into an epic and life-threatening quest. Syria, however, is no longer a place for heroes, and the decisions the family must make along the way—as they find themselves captured and recaptured, interrogated, imprisoned, and bombed—will prove to have enormous consequences for all of them.
One of Syria's most acclaimed literary voices, Khaled Khalifa was the greatest chronicler of his country's catastrophic civil war. In Death is Hard Work, he delivers a tale of three ordinary people facing down the stuff of nightmares armed with little more than simple determination.
Winner of the Naguib Mahfouz Medal for Literature
Finalist for the National Book Award for Translated Literature
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Yes, you can access Death Is Hard Work by Khaled Khalifa in PDF and/or ePUB format, as well as other popular books in Literature & Literature General. We have over one million books available in our catalogue for you to explore.
Information
Table of contents
- Cover
- Title Page
- Copyright Notice
- One: If You Were a Sack of Cumin
- Two: A Bouquet Floating Down a River
- Three: Bolbol Flying in a Confined Space
- Also by Khaled Khalifa
- A Note About the Author and Translator
- Newsletter Sign-up
- Contents
- Copyright