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'A soulful and perfectly unsentimental writer...' MOHSIN HAMID
December, 1907: one morning after a night of drunken carousing in
the city, Hanna and his friend Zakariya return home to their
village near Aleppo-only to discover a scene of tragedy. A
devastating flood has levelled their homes, shops and places of
worship, and their neighbours, families and children are nearly all
dead. Their lives will never be the same. Tracing Hanna's life
before and after the flood-when he embarks on a search for the
meaning of life-No One Prayed Over Their Graves is a portrait of a
wider society on the verge of great change; from the provincial
village to the burgeoning modernity of the city, where Christians,
Muslims, and Jews live and work together, united in their love for
Aleppo and their dreams for the future.
A GUARDIAN BOOK OF THE YEAR
A FINALIST FOR THE NATIONAL BOOK AWARDS IN TRANSLATED LITERATURE
SHORTLISTED FOR THE SAIF GHOBASH BANIPAL PRIZE
Death Is Hard Work is a tale of three people embarking on an absurd quest - an unforgettable journey into a contemporary heart of darkness.
At a hospital in Damascus, Syria, Abdel Latif's final wish is to be buried in the family plot near Aleppo - just a two-hour drive away. Bolbol, his youngest son, persuades his estranged brother and sister to accompany him and their father's body to the ancestral village. But Syria is a war zone, and the trials that confront the family on their journey will have enormous consequences for them all.
In the once beautiful city of Aleppo, one Syrian family collapses
into tragedy and ruin. The mother, abandoned by her husband,
struggles to raise her children alone. Her daughter Sawsan flirts
with the militias, the ruling party, and finally religion, seeking
but never finding salvation. All are slowly choked in the fog of
violence and decay, as their lives are plundered and their dreams
wrecked by the brutal Assad regime. Set between the 1960s and
2000s, No Knives in the Kitchens of this City is a graceful and
profound depiction of life under tyranny. Through the story of a
single family, we read the disintegration of a whole society over
half a century. This novel teaches us about grief, fear, and the
end of beauty.
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Death Is Hard Work (Paperback)
Khaled Khalifa; Translated by Leri Price
1
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R463
R379
Discovery Miles 3 790
Save R84 (18%)
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Ships in 10 - 15 working days
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1980s Syria, our young narrator is living a secluded life behind
the veil in the vast and perfumed house of her grandparents in
Aleppo. Her three aunts, Maryam the pious one; Safaa, the liberal;
and the free-spirited Marwa, bring her up with the aid of their
ever-devoted blind servant. Soon the high walls of the family home
are unable to protect her from the social and political changes
outside. Witnessing the crackdowns of the ruling dictatorship
against Muslims, she is filled with hatred for her oppressors, and
becomes increasingly fundamentalist. In the footsteps of her
beloved uncle Bakr, she takes on the party, launching herself into
a fight for her religion, her country, and ultimately, her own
future. On a backdrop of real-life events that occurred during the
Syrian regime's ruthless suppression of the Muslim Brotherhood in
the 1980s, IN PRAISE OF HATRED is a stirring, sensual story. Its
elegant use of traditional, layered storytelling is a powerful echo
of the modern-day tragedy that is now taking place in the Middle
East.
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