Death Is Hard Work by Khaled Khalifa

Death Is Hard Work by Khaled Khalifa

Honour, patience and blood is tested, when three estranged siblings become entangled in a quest to fulfill their father's last wish; to be buried in his family plot.

What appears to be a seemingly straightforward drive from Damascus to their father’s ancestral village of Anabiya, takes on an entirely different landscape and climate in the wake of Syria's civil war.

The drudgery and torture of their task, dawning on them far beyond the point of being saved. As they are hurled along through rubble and chaos, they are reminded of their own broken relationships and of the silence and space suspended between them. Together they must bargain, beg and bribe their way through war torn Syria, littered with snipers, secret police and endless checkpoints and interrogations.

Together they must look beyond their differences and swallow their pride to complete one final journey, before disintegrating from each other's lives for good.

Amidst destruction, devastation and decay, Khaled Khalifa negotiates a place in between the dead and the living, and that is the true beauty of this novel.

Reviewed by Vindhya Kathuria

Happy reading! 

RESERVE YOUR COPY OF Death is Hard Work by Khaled Khalifa