The latest addition to my website is ‘s لا سكاكين في مطابخ هذه المدينة (No Knives in the Kitchens of This City). The novel follows an extended Syrian family from the the middle of the last century to the early twentieth century. The mother, from a well-to-do family, falls for a man from a poor family and they have four children before her husband escapes to the US with a much older woman. The family return to Aleppo but with the B’aathist takeover, the day the unnamed narrator, one of the family. is born. For a variety of reasons – the political situation, bad luck, poor judgement and simply because, most things seem to go wrong, their lot does not improve, at least not for long.. They briefly travel abroad, one to Paris, one to Beirut, and one to Baghdad during the US invasion, but all return the worse for wear. We follow them for a long period and every glimmer of hope is soon snuffed out. Khalifa tells his tale well and is highly critical of the Syrian ruling regime (this book was published in Egypt) but offers no prospects for improvement.