Syrian novels that have won awards The White Minaret by writer and journalist Ya'rab Al-Issa, published in 2021, won the International Prize for Arabic Fiction. The novel tells the story of a young man who sold himself to evil and then wanted to reclaim it for good, narrating his rise to wealth through corruption and wars in the Middle East. The second novel, "Death is Hard Work" by the late Khaled Khalifa. The novel tells the story of Bulbul, who, along with his siblings, is tasked with fulfilling their father's dying wish to be buried in his hometown of Aleppo. The novel then recounts the process of transporting the body from Damascus to Aleppo during the Syrian Civil War. The journey, which normally takes four hours, took several days and involved facing the dangers of war and the road. The White Minaret: 90 SAR Death is Hard Work: 70 SAR