Review: 'Death is Hard Work' by Khaled Khalifa

⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️/5

'Death is Hard Work' by Khaled Khalifa, 180 pages - Instagram @c_reads_books

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Death is Hard Work by Khaled Khalifa tells a story set right in the heart of Syria’s cataclysmic civil war. In order to fulfil their father, Abdel Latif’s, dying wish, siblings Bolbol, Hussein, and Fatima set out in a minibus on a hellish road trip from Damascus, where their father died, to Anabiya, the family’s ancestral village, where Abdel wanted to be buried next to his sister Layla. Over countless days and nights, the siblings navigate the roads, recalling the past, while trying to pass the numerous checkpoints in a war-torn country and reach Anabiya before their father’s body completely rots away.

I absolutely loved this book. The story in general was very powerful, and I loved the way Khalifa told it. Although the book is centered around the siblings’ journey to Anabiya, the story jumps around in time, revealing a telling portrait of a family turned estranged. Each character was interestingly and fully developed, with each of them having at least one characteristic I could easily relate to. I also really liked the tragedy, yet absurd and dark comedy of the story this book tells, as the siblings’ once noble quest becomes a hellish journey full of side-tracks, insults, attacks, and detainments. Overall, I absolutely loved this book, and would recommend it to literally anyone!