Paperback: 192 pages
Publisher: Faber & Faber, 2020
Language: English

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.

Translated by Leri Price

Guardian Book of the Year
Winner of the Saif Ghobash Banipal Award
Finalist for the National Book Awards in Translated Literature
Finalist for the Premio Gregor von Rezzori Award

Khaled Khalifa was born in 1964 near Aleppo, Syria, the fifth child of a family of thirteen siblings. He studied law at Aleppo University and actively participated in the foundation of Aleph magazine with a group of writers and poets. A few months later, the magazine was closed down by Syrian censorship. Active in the arts scene in Damascus where he lives, Khalifa is a writer of screenplays for television and cinema as well as novels that explore Syrian history.