Khālid Khalīfah (1964–2023)
Teoksen Death Is Hard Work tekijä
Tietoja tekijästä
Image credit: Khālid Khalīfah, 2023.
Tekijän teokset
Merkitty avainsanalla
Yleistieto
- Kanoninen nimi
- Khalīfah, Khālid
- Virallinen nimi
- خالد خليفة
- Syntymäaika
- 1964-01-01
- Kuolinaika
- 2023-09-30
- Sukupuoli
- male
- Kansalaisuus
- Syria
- Syntymäpaikka
- Maryamin, Aleppo, Syria
- Kuolinpaikka
- Damascus, Syria (at home)
- Kuolinsyy
- heart attack
- Asuinpaikat
- Aleppo, Syria
Damascus, Syria (1999)
Latakia, Syria - Koulutus
- Al-Mutanabbi High School (graduated|1982)
Aleppo University (Faculty of Law|graduated|1988) - Ammatit
- novelist
poet
screenwriter
Jäseniä
Kirja-arvosteluja
Listat
Palkinnot
You May Also Like
Associated Authors
Tilastot
- Teokset
- 9
- Jäseniä
- 544
- Suosituimmuussija
- #45,827
- Arvio (tähdet)
- 3.1
- Kirja-arvosteluja
- 31
- ISBN:t
- 44
- Kielet
- 6
This is a story of four family members who take a trip by car from Damascus to Anibiya, a small town a few hundred kilometers away.
The car’s occupants are three sibling and their father. The father has recently died. His cadavre is wrapped in a makeshift shroud. The body is being taken to Anibya for burial next to his wife as was his dying wish.
Thirty year’s ago a fourth sibling, a talented, smart independent young woman who, when her father arranged for her to marry a man she did not love, decided to die. On the wedding day in Anibiya, she climbed to the roof a building, looked down at the wedding party and burned herself to death.
Possibly it was because of guilt that father’s dying wish was that his body be buried in Anibiya. It was an impractical wish as to drive there from Damascus was extremely dangerous. But the brothers decided to go. The sister was not consulted.
It’s hot. It’s Syria. There are many official and unofficial road-blocks with stops between Damascus and Anibiya. The trip which is only a four hour drive in normal times, takes three days. The father’s dead body putrefies in stages, graphically told. There’s no A/C. The siblings can’t open the windows as they are scared of regime and rebel soldiers, and gangs. They are frequently held up at checkpoints. At one the two brothers are told to leave the car. The sister waits in the closed-window car for five hours with her father’s putrefying body. When the brothers return she is mute and remains so, forever.
This is a disturbing book in a bad way. It is an unpleasant read. Although it illustrates the meaningless of war, the method used, the long passages describing the decaying of the body did not seem to be there for any reason other than to engender horror. It was also a little disingenuous as it’s common knowledge that Islam requires bodies to be buried cleanly as soon as possible after death.… (lisätietoja)