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Literature 2018

Khalil Sweileh

Syria

Khalil Sweileh was born in 1959 in the city of Hasaka, Syria. He is a poet, novelist and cultural journalist. His portfolio of works includes many collections of poetry, including Prefaces, That was the Scene and Tracing the Marks, in addition to a number of novels, which include Writing Love, Express Mail, The Gazelle will Come to You, and The Barbarians’ Paradise.

He has won a number of literary and journalism awards, including the 2009 Naguib Mahfouz Medal for Literature for his novel Warraq al-Hubb (Writing Love, AUC Press, 2012) and the Arab
Journalism Award (2010).

About The Book

‘Ikhtibar al-nadam’ (Remorse Test) by Syrian novelist Khalil Sweileh, published by Hachette Antoine/Nofal, Beirut, Lebanon, 2017, portrays an inward view of the Syrian Civil War tragedy: the author takes the reader on a trip around Damascus, trudging along a number of memory lanes and presenting the psychological conflicts arising from the shattered reality of place and society. The novel marks a new beginning in Syrian literature, with
its singular use of narrative tools and vocabulary construction.


Published: 2017

Interview with

Khalil Sweileh

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