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WINNER OF THE NAQUIB MAHFOUZ MEDAL FOR LITERATURE
SHORTLISTED FOR THE INTERNATIONAL PRIZE FOR ARABIC FICTION
ONE OF THE 50 MOST IMPORTANT ARABIC NOVELS OF THE 21ST CENTURY (THE NATIONAL)
In the once beautiful city of Aleppo, one family descends into ruin in this novel from "one of the rising stars of Arab fiction" (New York Times)
Irrepressible Sawsan flirts with militias, the ruling party, and finally religion, seeking but never finding salvation. She and her siblings and mother are slowly choked in violence and decay, as their lives are plundered by a brutal regime.
Set between the 1960s and 2000s, No Knives in the Kitchens of this City unravels the systems of fear and control under Assad. With eloquence and startling honesty, it speaks of the persecution of a whole society.
"Khaled Khalifa writes about his native city with sensuality and an almost feral intensity. . . . No Knives in the Kitchens of This City offers a glimpse into how terrified and empty of hope the people of a city must be to rise up in revolt. The future offers them nothing. It is a castle of closed doors. . . . The sights, smells and horror of living in Aleppo come pounding to life in this book. The place, to me, is no longer an abstraction, and Mr. Khalifa clearly fears for its fate throughout."—The New York Times
"Intricately plotted, chronologically complicated and a pleasure to read. . . . The writing is superb--a dense, luxurious realism pricked with surprising metaphors. It is lyrical, sensuous and so semantically rich that at times it resembles a prose poem . . . . A sad but beautiful book, providing important human context to the escalating Syrian tragedy."—The Guardian
"Khalifa writes a raw, exquisite account of the Assad regime's loosening grip on [Syria] and the accompanying chaos."—Washington Independent Review of Books
"[Khalifa] surprises and shocks"—Charles Glass, The New York Review of Books
"Critically acclaimed . . . [No Knives in the Kitchens of this City] traces the degrading and destructive impact of Syria's dictatorship on the lives of a family from Aleppo."—Financial Times
"Required reading for anyone who wants to better understand the roots of the uprising and current conflict in Syria."—Literary Hub
"A searing indictment of the Syrian regime."—The National