Writer Khaled Khalifa is dead

Khalifa is one of the most famous contemporary Syrian authors. His novels, including Death Is a Troublesome Business, have been translated into numerous languages. Most recently he was nominated for the National Book Award for the second time.

His books were not allowed to appear in Syria. He was considered an important critic of the regime. His novel “Nobody Prayed at Their Graves” was most recently published by Rowohlt Verlag in 2022. In it, as in his other works, Khalifa deals with his home country and its social and political situation. He describes the development of Syria over almost a hundred years using several families.

In his novel “Death is a Painstaking Business”, which was published in German in 2018, Khalifa tells of three siblings who want to fulfill their dead father’s last wish: They try to transport his body 300 kilometers from Damascus to the cemetery of his home village near Aleppo transport. And this at a time when Assad militias, Islamists and insurgents had divided the country into many contested districts.

Khalifa lived in Damascus and he probably couldn’t imagine a life in exile. It didn’t bother him that his works were banned in Syria, as he once told the dpa. “It’s absurd, you can’t talk about banned books while your friends were sentenced to 15 years in prison for making political statements.”

Born in Aleppo in 1964, Khalifa initially studied law. He was co-founder and co-editor of the literary magazine “Alif” and a member of the “Literary Forum” at the University of Aleppo, founded in the 1980s.

Despite all the repression, he did not leave his country. And he wasn’t afraid to keep writing, as he once told the dpa. “I don’t think about the fear. I think about finding my way through the bombed areas.” The publisher did not provide any information about the cause of death.