No One Prayed Over Their Graves, Khaled Khalifa
No One Prayed Over Their Graves, Khaled Khalifa
List: $29.99 | Sale: $21.00
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No One Prayed Over Their Graves
A Novel

Author: Khaled Khalifa, Leri Price

Narrator: Neil Shah

Unabridged: 18 hr 7 min

Format: Digital Audiobook Download

Published: 10/31/2023


Synopsis

On a December morning in 1907, two close friends, Hanna and Zakariya, return to their village near Aleppo after a night of drunken carousing in the city, only to discover that there has been a massive flood. Their neighbors, families, children—nearly all of them are dead. Their homes, shops, and places of worship are leveled. Their lives will never be the same.

Hanna was once a wealthy libertine, a landowner who built a famed citadel devoted to the pursuit of pleasure and excess. But with the loss of his home, wife, and community, he transforms, becoming an ascetic mystic obsessed with death and the meaning of life. In No One Prayed Over Their Graves, we follow Hanna's life before and after the flood, tracing friendships, loves and lusts, family and business, until he is just one thread in the rich tapestry of Aleppo.

Khaled Khalifa weaves a sweeping tale of life and death in the hubbub of Aleppine society at the turn of the twentieth century. No One Prayed Over Their Graves is a portrait of a people on the verge of great change—from provincial villages to the burgeoning modernity of the city, where Christians, Muslims, and Jews live and work together, united in their love for Aleppo and their dreams for the future.

About Khaled Khalifa

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. His 2019 novel Death Is Hard Work was a finalist for the National Book Award.


Reviews

Goodreads review by فايز غازي on September 30, 2023

- "لم يصل عليهم أحد"، ملحمة سورية بالشكل انسانية بالمضمون، عزف خالد خليفة الحانها على اوتار الحزن والتيه ودندن قصص العشق على قدود حلبية اتشحت بالسواد والقتامة حيناً، والحب والوله حيناً آخر، والموت والتيه في أحيان اخرى، ساكباً هذا اللحن السرمدي في قلب القارئ وروحه بأسلوب فذ وعاطفة جياشة. أنا كخط المعم......more

Goodreads review by Sylvie on July 06, 2019

Masterpiece, I feel lucky to have a brilliant writer like Khaled write about my beloved city Aleppo. I find it difficult to explain to foreigners how my city embraces different religions and ethnicities and that we live together in true peace and harmony .. grateful for this beautiful book that is p......more

Goodreads review by BooksByCC on October 17, 2023

What a book. We are introduced to a young Syria from a new to me author Khaled Khalifa. We are now friends Sir. Syria was at her beginning. She started introducing Construction, Art, Fashion, History, Culture but not religion. Religion has been the very cement on which she is built. I spent a great a......more